The fact that Google’s Stadia game streaming service is in trouble isn’t exactly breaking news. Early last year, the business closed its Stadia development facilities, and the number of huge titles coming to the service has slowed to a crawl. Unsurprisingly, Stadia has been “deprioritized” within Google, according to a recent report from Business Insider, however, the corporation isn’t ready to abandon the core technology just yet.
Under the new name Google Stream, Google appears to be selling Stadia technology to partners. According to reports, there were high-level conversations with Bungie, but they may have been canceled due to Sony’s recent acquisition. There have also been discussions with Capcom about establishing a system that allows users to play demos directly from the Capcom website. Further afield, Google may collaborate with Peleton to create game-like experiences on their fitness equipment.
Naturally, take this with a grain of salt, even though Business Insider is typically a reliable source. Google, for one, acknowledges that they’re seeking for new partners to license their streaming technology to, noting AT&T’s offer of a free streaming edition of Batman: Arkham Knight, but they’re not commenting on Stadia’s continued neglect…
We announced our intentions of helping publishers and partners deliver games directly to gamers last year, and have been working toward that. The first manifestation has been our partnership with AT&T, which is offering Batman: Arkham Knight to their customers for free. While we won’t be commenting on any rumors or speculation regarding other industry partners, we are still focused on bringing great games to Stadia in 2022.
Stadia’s rise and collapse have always been a bit of a puzzle. The technology is fantastic! It’s the business model that’s the problem. You’d think Google could address the latter while pushing the former, but not.
