Google Can Still Fix Stadia
Stadia’s rocky launch left it vulnerable to competition, but Google can turn it around by leveraging its strengths as a tech behemoth
The year 2019 was a big one for the video game industry. With Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all announcing plans for new consoles or console upgrades in 2020, no one expected it would be Google that would steal the spotlight with the launch of its subscription cloud gaming platform Stadia in late 2019. Google promised a video game streaming experience that featured incredible graphics: 4K resolutions, 60 frames per second, and low input lag on myriad games in the Stadia library. Gamers wouldn’t even need to buy a console — all they needed to do was find a game, click, and play.
It was the perfect opportunity for Google; the video game industry had just come off a few years of wild growth to reach a record $6.3 billion in revenue spurred by mobile games and free-to-play models. Though future outlook looked to stall, many analysts predicted that it would be Stadia’s subscription model that would be a catalyst for a big change in the industry, just as it has been for music and television.
