SoylentNews

Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/02/report-stadia-undershot-to-the-tune-of-hundreds-of-thousands-of-users/ [arstechnica.com]

In the wake of Google shutting down its Stadia Games & Entertainment (SG&E) group [arstechnica.com], leaks about the underwhelming game-streaming service have started to emerge [arstechnica.com]. A Friday Bloomberg report [bloomberg.com], citing unnamed Stadia sources, attaches a new number to the failures: "hundreds of thousands" fewer controllers sold and "monthly active users" (MAU) logging in than Google had anticipated.
[...]
As part of his Stadia-launch mission, Harrison approved deals costing "tens of millions of dollars" to woo publishers like Take-Two and Ubisoft to launch their games on Stadia [arstechnica.com], Schreier reports. Exactly how many millions of dollars Stadia spent on these deals is unknown, but Schreier claims that "the amount of money Google was willing to spend came as a shock to veteran game developers," which implies a figure larger than $10 million.
[...]
Also on Friday, Wired's Cecilia D'Anastasio published a report citing additional, unnamed sources on the woes of Stadia development [wired.com]. According to that report, Google forbade game developers in the SG&E group from "using certain game development software," which D'Anastasio likened to "roadblocks on the very fundamentals of game-making." Additionally, she reports that Stadia's ambitious goals for internal game studios were hamstrung by serious issues with Google infrastructure:
[...]
Stadia continues to operate as a home for third-party games streamed from Google's servers to players' homes. Paid $10/mo Stadia Pro subscriptions include access to a library of over two dozen games, while "free" accounts can either buy Stadia game licenses à la carte or access free-to-play software like Destiny 2.

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