Written by: Lan Xu 2022 Cohort
Stadia announced shut down
On September 29, Stadia vice president and general manager Phil Harrison announced on the company blog that Stadia would shut down servers on January 18, 2023.
The underlying technology platform that powers Stadia is proven at scale and “beyond the realm of gaming,” the blog said. “We see an opportunity to apply this technology to other parts of Google, such as Youtube, Google Play and our augmented reality technology, and make these technologies available to our industry partners, which is consistent with what we see as the future direction of gaming .”
The blog concludes by noting that Stadia team members will continue to work in other parts of the company, impacting gaming and other industries, and thanking these members for their pioneering work.
The Debut of Stadia
When it debuted at the Game Developers Conference in March 2019, Stadia looked like the epitome of groundbreaking work, with some even calling it the “Netflix of gaming.” Google promises to let players enjoy a high-definition cloud gaming experience on any device and even be able to jump directly into the game from Youtube clips.
However, since then, due to the weak game lineup, unreasonable pricing, and unsatisfactory game performance, it has been difficult for Stadia to compete with other game platforms. Competitors in the industry have sprung up like mushrooms, providing more complete hardware, more comprehensive game libraries and more affordable price/performance than Stadia, making Stadia seem uncompetitive.
Others’ Point of View
Faced with the decision to shut down, many Stadia loyalists are heartbroken. In August 2022, foreign media Kotaku interviewed several users who have invested hundreds of hours on the Stadia platform. They argue that Stadia is cheaper, more portable, and better suited for home-sharing functions than gaming consoles and high-end PCs. Another advantage is that Stadia doesn’t have to wait for the game to download or update; just enter the game, and it starts a few moments later. Stadia’s failure may have been predicted long ago, but its attempts to change how humans play games should not be dismissed. On the one hand, Stadia’s technology has been dispersed into Google or other vendors’ projects, forming part of their flesh and blood. On the other hand, Stadia will become a solid footnote in the history of game development, leaving a lesson for latecomers to refer to.