The stadium is fine and alive, says marketing manager -apkrig
It can’t be said that Google Stadium should be on the rise. Although we were satisfied with our own gameplay, the overall philosophy of this streaming service was already under fire from many times, which corresponds to the various changes that Google has gradually made. The most significant was the termination of our own development activities and the subsequent departure of important employees, not only from the ranks of the developers themselves. And also, given how Google, as a company, approaches a variety of projects and services – which it doesn’t hesitate to cancel if it proves to be dysfunctional or unprofitable – the mood around the Stadium is not very optimistic. However, in a long interview with Gamesindustry, Nate Ahearn, Stadie’s head of marketing, dispels all concerns and claims that the platform is OK and still alive.
“We’re well on our way to introducing more than 100 new games to the Stadium in 2021, and we’re continuing to make the Stadium a great place to play games on devices you already own,” says Ahearn. He would then tell the unbelievers to notice how Google continues to deliver on its words and promises as the Stadium Makers program expands and collaborates with AAA studios such as Capcom, EA, Square Enix and Ubisoft. Ahearn thus repeats what has been said before from the general manager of the Stadium, Phil Harrison – that is, full focus on obtaining the best possible content from third party partners, which is doing well. Fairly, we have to admit that Resident Evil Village, for example, was released at the Stadium last week, and as Aeharn himself points out, the value of the Stadium Pro subscription, to which Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was last added, is also increasing.
The purpose of the whole program is to support the addition of the Stadium as a starting platform for games by independent authors, not to put any pressure on them or make it difficult for them.
As for the mentioned Stadia Makers initiative, it is a program providing comprehensive support to independent teams for the creation of games on the Unity engine, which will tailor-made for the stadium. Although they may not be exclusively exclusive titles, five games have already emerged from the program and more are on the way. The April presentation presented, for example, the projects Hundred Days, Foreclosed, Skyclimbers and Grime, which are alongside twenty other emerging titles. “The purpose of the whole program is to support the addition of Stadie as a launch platform for independent authors’ games, not to put pressure on or make it difficult for them,” Ahearn explains, answering why the listed games can work on other platforms, albeit sometimes after the expiration of time exclusivity. Google plans to develop the initiative and include creators from other regions, so that players can get more interesting titles, according to Ahearn, dealing with topics such as mental health, dystopian reality and the human mind.
How big is the player base?
The question, of course, remains how many such players there are, given that Google has never boasted about the number of users of the Stadium. Addressed developers for Gamesindustry, however, indicated that the demand for new games certainly exists and comes from loud and engaged players. Ahearn also confirms the demand and suggests that Stadia is probably filling a gap in the market, and thus will remain with the chosen payment and monetization mechanism. “Gaming in the cloud is still relatively new, but in many ways it reflects the initial adoption of VR games. If you know the life cycle of technology adoption, I would say that it is currently in the pioneer phase, which is transitioning to the first majority phase, “adds the marketing director. However, it perceives a barrier to the entry of new players, which it attributes to low awareness of cloud services and their operation. “Players are a little reluctant to think about alternatives. It is always difficult to do something innovative, but such things are until they become commonplace. And if it works out for someone, it will be Google, “concludes Nate Ahearn.
So we will see what the next development around Stadia will be – from a technical point of view, the service is very good at it and the quality of transmission or speed of control response can outperform the competition. However, it is still a very closed ecosystem, from which it is not possible to take games to another platform or offer an alternative in the form of offline gaming, as they do through the Game Pass offer of Microsoft and basically Sony for some PlayStation Now titles.
