A statement from a Google employee, Dov Zimring, has been released as a part of the FTC vs Microsoft court case (via 9to5Google). Only minorly redacted, the statement gives us a run down of Google’s position leading up to Stadia’s closure and why, ultimately, Stadia was in a death spiral long before its actual demise.

"For Stadia to succeed, both consumers and publishers needed to find sufficient value in the Stadia platform. Stadia conducted user experience research on the reasons why gamers choose one platform over another. That research showed that the primary reasons why gamers choose a game platform are (1) content catalog (breadth and depth) and (2) network effects (where their friends play).

“However, Stadia never had access to the extensive library of games available on Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam. More importantly, these competing services offered a wider selection of AAA games than Stadia,” Zimring says.

According to the statement, Google would also offer to pay some, or all, of the costs associated with porting a game to Stadia’s Linux-based streaming platform to try and get more games on the platform. Still, in Google’s eyes, this wasn’t enough to compete with easier platforms to develop for, such as Nvidia’s GeForce Now.

  • @ezchili@iusearchlinux.fyi
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    610 months ago

    I always loved the “hardware running 24/7” e-waste part of it

    I owned a ps4 that I must have played 60 hours on for spiderman and horizon and now it’s never going to be used anymore

    Would’ve loved a streaming platform that doesn’t cost a whole console in a year in subscription fees + makes you pay for the games

    • Chozo
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      410 months ago

      Would’ve loved a streaming platform that doesn’t cost a whole console in a year in subscription fees + makes you pay for the games

      Stadia’s subscription service wouldn’t have cost more than a console for several years. It was only $10/month, and also not required to play the games or use multiplayer.

      It would’ve taken over 4 years for Stadia Pro’s subscription costs to reach the price of a PS5, not even including a PS+ subscription. And during that time, you’d have been able to claim ~150 free games. Realistically, Stadia had the potential to be more economic than buying a console.

    • @vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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      110 months ago

      I wouldnt call a PS4 e-waste, if the PS2 is anything to go by it will end up cycling about for a long time in some shape or form. Seriously PS2 parts are a solid mix of old new stock, newly manufactured parts, or spares taken from scrapped dead consoles.

      • English Mobster
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        10 months ago

        PS2 was before the days of internet-based games.

        Now a lot of games expect an Internet connection and a store to download things from. When those are gone, the PS4 will be scrap.

        • @vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          210 months ago

          Eh, I will still be able to play the base game of say far cry 4 or assassins creed black flag. I have the disks, and even then you could always buy the versions that have all the dlc. Nobody talks about the fable 1 dlc but they existed.

          Unless its a multiplayer focused game there will always be games to play on it, even if ya dont get the DLC.

        • @vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          310 months ago

          Regular use is irrelevant so long as it doesnt end up in a land fill, what matters is that they get some continued use and survive in solid enough numbers.

    • @llii@feddit.de
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      010 months ago

      But you don’t need PS+ for Spider-Man and Horizon? And you could buy and sell the console + games after playing the two games you wanted to play on the platform.

      It’s not as convenient as just streaming the games, but it is possible.