Google Stadia hasn’t seen much public movement as of late. Well, with the exception of the recent news of Stadia Games & Entertainment’s closure less than two years after launch. This means that the company won’t be prioritizing first-party titles for the system. This also resulted in the Stadia team losing a number of key players and personnel, including former EA producer Jade Raymond alongside six other staff members, and head of product’s John Justice resigned. Despite the waves of criticism and doubt, Google assures that Stadia is still “alive and well.”

Developer marketing lead, Nate Ahearn, told GamesIndustry.biz: “We’re well on our way to over 100 new games launching on Stadia in 2021, and we’re continuing to make Stadia a great place to play games on devices you already own. I’d tell any non-believers to take notice of how we’re continuing to put our words into action, as we grow the Stadia Makers program and partner with AAA studios like Capcom, EA, Square Enix, Ubisoft and others.”

Stadia Makers is a program that offers marketing support for independent studios creating Unity-based games to launch on Stadia. Whether the title releases are triple-A or indie, it still begs the question: Is cloud-based gaming viable? According to Soedesco community manager, Marten Buijsse, cloud gaming fulfills a certain niche in the games industry.

“It’s actually very interesting to see the demand for a cloud service like Stadia, and you can clearly see that it’s filling a certain gap in the market,” said Buijsse. “I’ve seen a lot of people saying ‘I wish this game was on mobile,’ and Stadia makes it possible for these mobile players to play the game.”

Akupara Games’ senior producer, Alyssa Kollgard, believes it will take some time before the market will reach a sense of familiarity with cloud-based gaming. Understandably, it is a relatively new concept and its transition into a common household platform will evolve similarly to the timeline of virtual reality reception. In other words, it’s going to be a “slow burn.”

“Cloud based gaming is still relatively new, but in a lot of ways it mirrors early adoption of VR gaming,” Kollgard mentioned. “If you’re familiar with the technology adoption life cycle, I’d say we are currently in the ‘Early Adopter’ phase moving into the ‘Early Majority’ phase. It hasn’t quite reached that watershed moment yet, but Google is currently pushing the boundaries of the tech and has the strength of brand awareness and funding to really kickstart the field. It’s not something that will happen overnight – it’s a slow burn.”

Despite the naysayers and looming doubt regarding the viability of cloud-based gaming, Google plans to persevere and continue pioneering methods of their platform. Whether you’re a fan Stadia’s cloud-base gaming model, what do you think about Google’s plans to continue its development? Are you a Google Stadia owner? What are your thoughts on the mainstream feedback on the platform?

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