Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai announces the company's new streaming games service Stadia on Tuesday in San Francisco.
“When we launched Chrome a decade ago, we imagined it could be a modern platform for web applications,” said Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai, “including use cases that seemed impossible at that time, like high-quality games.” To help cement its place in the gaming industry, Google said Tuesday that it is founding its own, proprietary game development studio, Stadia Games and Entertainment.
That raised some eyebrows. “What’s the revenue model?” said Joost van Dreunen, co-founder of gaming research firm SuperData. “It’s a little bit like saying we’re going to start a restaurant but we have no idea what cuisine we’re making.” Harrison repeatedly said the goal was to reduce or eliminate the “friction” that stands between players and their games, such as having to wait for downloads or access to more powerful equipment.Because games on Stadia operate from a Google server, Harrison said, players will be able to move from one internet-connected device to another without interrupting their game session.
But some are skeptical that Google and other tech firms can build a sustainable business around cloud gaming. Most gamers who play premium games and who would likely be the target audience for such a service already have access to powerful gaming hardware, analysts say. And Google’s move into the distribution of games could lead to new tensions with game publishers, said Brandon Ross, an industry analyst at BTIG.
Has it been discontinued yet?
It would be better for Google to announce their rules on a hate-free platform that seeks to “not be evil”. White supremacy is evil. Radicalizing purposefully confused youth is evil. Fermenting and spreading hate can be recognized and squashed back into obscurity.
Are they selling Specialized bikes now? Logo looks familiar. 😏
I will go out of my way to avoid this service.