Stadia’s rollout turned out to be one of the most disastrous launches in the history of gaming platforms. That’s according to analyst firm DFC Intelligence.
GameDaily.biz reports that DFC released a note the other day saying that Stadia does not stand up to criticism – something that DFC has suggested all along.
When we had our first look at the Google Stadia streaming service at GDC in March 2019 we left uncertain. To us it was unimpressive, but we were told Google had more up its sleeve. Last week Google Stadia officially launched (we think) and it became clear the emperor has no clothes.
The firm also predicts that following the failed launch, Google will kill Stadia – just like it killed other services that didn’t take off: Daydream, Google+, Google Inbox, Google Wave, and most recently, Google Cloud Print. After the closure, the tech giant will abandon its gaming ambitions.
A detailed analysis of the problems with Stadia would go on for a while. In the end, Google will go back to the drawing board. For the time being, they will shrink from the game industry radar. Like many Google products, Stadia will die a quick death.
If this really comes to pass, 2020 will see a nubmer of high-profile layoffs and the closure of the Montreal-based gaming studio led by Jade Raymond. The studio launched in October to develop exclusives for Stadia.
Stadia officially came out on November 19. The gaming press gave it a restrained reception.
As it turned out, at launch the platform does not provide a lot of features that Google touted (4K, 60 frames, consistently high-quality graphics, etc.).
More critically, Stadia is very demanding when it comes to your hardware and Internet connection.
In addition, many have raised questions about the monetization of the service. To use the service, you need to pay for an expensive monthly subscription, while the games are bought separately.