Read from Kotaku and The Verge
A new report claims that Google is trying to salvage its Stadia streaming service by not focusing on video games but instead looking to make deals with companies like Peleton to create playable experiences and online demos.
One year after Google revealed it now saw Google Stadia cloud gaming idea as a mere “technology platform for industry partners” rather than a true rival to Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, Business Insider is reporting that some Stadia gamers’ fears have come true: the entire Stadia project has been demoted within Google, and its new priority is to power experiences from companies including Peloton, Bungie, and Capcom rather than attracting more games to Stadia itself.
Two sources told BI that Google Stadia boss Phil Harrison now reports to Jason Rosenthal, Google’s vice president of subscription services, instead of directly to Google hardware boss Rick Osterloh. That’s a demotion for the entire Stadia division, though that’s perhaps not too much of a surprise: Stadia wasn’t meeting Google’s internal expectations, drastically missing sales targets, despite paying tens of millions of dollars per game just to secure ports for the platform, according to reports last year.
Peloton isn’t the only company that’s been quietly using Google Stadia as a white-label service: AT&T confirmed that its free browser-based access to Batman: Arkham Knight last October ran on Stadia tech. Capcom is in talks to do the same with web-based demos of its games, too, according to the new report. And Destiny developer Bungie, which Sony is currently buying for $3.6 billion, was looking to build its own streaming platform on top of Google Stream, according to BI.
A new report claims that Google is trying to salvage its Stadia streaming service by not focusing on video games but instead looking to make deals with companies like Peleton to create playable experiences and online demos.
One year after Google revealed it now saw Google Stadia cloud gaming idea as a mere “technology platform for industry partners” rather than a true rival to Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, Business Insider is reporting that some Stadia gamers’ fears have come true: the entire Stadia project has been demoted within Google, and its new priority is to power experiences from companies including Peloton, Bungie, and Capcom rather than attracting more games to Stadia itself.
Two sources told BI that Google Stadia boss Phil Harrison now reports to Jason Rosenthal, Google’s vice president of subscription services, instead of directly to Google hardware boss Rick Osterloh. That’s a demotion for the entire Stadia division, though that’s perhaps not too much of a surprise: Stadia wasn’t meeting Google’s internal expectations, drastically missing sales targets, despite paying tens of millions of dollars per game just to secure ports for the platform, according to reports last year.
Peloton isn’t the only company that’s been quietly using Google Stadia as a white-label service: AT&T confirmed that its free browser-based access to Batman: Arkham Knight last October ran on Stadia tech. Capcom is in talks to do the same with web-based demos of its games, too, according to the new report. And Destiny developer Bungie, which Sony is currently buying for $3.6 billion, was looking to build its own streaming platform on top of Google Stream, according to BI.
