{"id":169055,"date":"2021-02-02T16:42:52","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T13:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/stadia-needed-a-killer-app-game-now-its-probably-never-getting-one-review-geek\/"},"modified":"2021-02-02T16:42:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T13:42:52","slug":"stadia-needed-a-killer-app-game-now-its-probably-never-getting-one-review-geek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/stadia-needed-a-killer-app-game-now-its-probably-never-getting-one-review-geek\/","title":{"rendered":"#Stadia Needed a \u201cKiller App\u201d Game\u2014Now It\u2019s Probably Never Getting One \u2013 Review Geek"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a368c02df2fe\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a368c02df2fe\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/stadia-needed-a-killer-app-game-now-its-probably-never-getting-one-review-geek\/#Work_From_Valves_Template\" >Work From Valve\u2019s Template<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/stadia-needed-a-killer-app-game-now-its-probably-never-getting-one-review-geek\/#Add_In_Stadias_Secret_Sauce\" >Add In Stadia\u2019s Secret Sauce<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/stadia-needed-a-killer-app-game-now-its-probably-never-getting-one-review-geek\/#An_Almost_Impossible_Ask\" >An Almost Impossible Ask<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><strong>&#8220;#Stadia Needed a \u201cKiller <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Game<\/a>\u2014Now It\u2019s Probably Never Getting One \u2013 Review Geek&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-content-area\">\n<figure style=\"width: 1920px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-69609 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/thumbcache\/0\/0\/873c44701ac370d0ecab48c77c4587c7\/p\/uploads\/2021\/02\/x1a075eaa.jpg.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+ws+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.nY5ErL_qhF.jpg\" alt=\"Stadia game controller\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data-credittext=\"Google\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"imagecredit\">Google<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Yesterday Google announced that it was shutting down Stadia Games and Entertainment, the in-house publisher and developer it had created to bring first-party games to Stadia. In the post it said that it was focusing its investment on Stadia\u2019s platform and <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a>, not original content. A sentence or two later, it said high-profile hire Jade Raymond was leaving, too.<\/p>\n<p>This is a big blow to Stadia as a platform. Stadia\u2019s lack of exclusive content, and specifically content that made unique use of its cloud-based technology, was one of the biggest disappointments of its first year. Google essentially giving up on making its own games, or even acquiring unique games from other developers, does not bode well.<\/p>\n<p>What could Stadia have done differently? What\u2019s the secret sauce it needed to nail the launch and\u00a0the year that followed? That\u2019s a question that inevitably creates an arrogant 20-20 hindsight situation, playing Monday morning quarterback for a multi-billion-dollar company.<\/p>\n<p>So yeah, let\u2019s go ahead and do that!<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Work_From_Valves_Template\"><\/span>Work From Valve\u2019s Template<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>To be sure, it would have been more or less impossible to pull out a groundbreaking AAA title in just a year or two of development for Stadia. Two years is about the time it takes for a company like EA or Ubisoft to make a blockbuster game, and that\u2019s with decades of experience and usually a franchise, engine, and basic game design to start with. For something wholly original, say, a\u00a0<em>Horizon Zero Dawn\u00a0<\/em>or a\u00a0<em>Halo\u00a0<\/em>(man, I\u2019m old!), they\u2019d need four to six years at the least.<\/p>\n<p>So, Stadia was never going to get a huge title breaking the mold of gaming, at least not out of its internal studio. Knowing their limitations, perhaps it might try to focus on a shorter, more contained experience\u2014something that takes advantage of all that distributed cloud power they showed off at the Game Developers Conference, without the sprawling, $100,000,000 scope of a modern AAA blockbuster.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1440px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-69576 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/thumbcache\/0\/0\/7e10dd441a3f95a52e9587a48f642772\/p\/uploads\/2021\/02\/x4986b11c.jpg.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+ws+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.m_3vRHfGLb.jpg\" alt=\"a screenshot from Portal\" width=\"1440\" height=\"1080\" data-credittext=\"Valve\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"imagecredit\">Valve<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There\u2019s a template to follow here, even if you don\u2019t want to focus on indie games. In 2007, Valve released\u00a0<em>Portal<\/em>, a short little puzzle game built mostly on an existing game and physics engine. It was a pack-in with The Orange Box, which was supposed to have a new Half-Life episode as its highlight. Instead,\u00a0<em>Team Fortress 2\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>Portal\u00a0<\/em>influenced multiplayer and single-player game design respectively over the next decade.<\/p>\n<p><em>Portal\u00a0<\/em>is a particularly relevant example here, because it\u2019s barely even a Valve game.\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Narbacular_Drop\"><em>Portal\u00a0<\/em>is a pseudo-sequel to <em>Narbacular Drop<\/em><\/a>, an indie game where its unique teleport mechanic first debuted. Valve hired the team of students that made the freeware game, threw a bunch of money and talent at them, and got a groundbreaking, universally-beloved classic in less than two years.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Add_In_Stadias_Secret_Sauce\"><\/span>Add In Stadia\u2019s Secret Sauce<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>So let\u2019s assume that Google could have thrown enough money around to get its own team of game design wunderkinds working on games for Stadia. Since it hired Raymond, a star producer behind mega-franchises at EA and Ubisoft, it certainly had the capability. Stadia courted developers like Tequila Works, which made indie hits like\u00a0<em>The Sexy Brutale<\/em>. Maybe it did try to create a focused, short project that would set the world of fire.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s only one ingredient it would need.\u00a0<em>Portal\u00a0<\/em>is a classic, but it was built on technology that was pretty conventional at the time. It had a revolutionary idea and implemented it with tools that were pretty well-known: the Source Engine, which is still being used by some projects today.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1715px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-69588 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/thumbcache\/0\/0\/f890474b6a16d2a3b59650d4511cc584\/p\/uploads\/2021\/02\/x24ff73df.jpg.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+ws+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.pKXp-gIbUS.jpg\" alt=\"Stadia presentation at the Game Developers Conference \" width=\"1715\" height=\"964\" data-credittext=\"Google\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"imagecredit\">Google<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That wouldn\u2019t have cut the mustard for Stadia, which was (and is) trying to sell gamers on an entirely new approach to the gaming medium. This hypothetical killer app would also need to demonstrate some of the gee-whiz capabilities of Stadia that Google showed off at GDC 2019 \u2026 and which are still trickling out in actual games.<\/p>\n<p>A multiplayer game with thousands of people on a map. A driving game that let other players throw obstacles at your from <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube<\/a>. A platformer that, I dunno, let you hop across Google search suggestions as users typed them in real time.\u00a0<em>Something\u00a0<\/em>that made Stadia more than just the games you already know about, delivered without a big old box next to the screen. Dylan Cuthbert, a Nintendo veteran and founder of Q-Games, said that he was working on the developer\u2019s \u201cbiggest game ever\u201d using Stadia\u2019s State Share feature.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1715px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-69592 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/thumbcache\/0\/0\/deec1b8e2b93f1145796579a39c20301\/p\/uploads\/2021\/02\/x973d06a4.jpg.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+ws+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.Ege7HTZcdx.jpg\" alt=\"Stadia presentation at the Game Developers Conference: state share\" width=\"1715\" height=\"959\" data-credittext=\"Google\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"imagecredit\">Google<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Google didn\u2019t make that game. But it\u2019s telling that the company is doubling down on the technology behind Stadia rather than the games themselves. It\u2019s an engineering-focused direction, but one that doesn\u2019t play well with gamers. The fact that Nintendo is selling more consoles than anyone, powered by what\u2019s essentially a souped-up (and rather old!) smartphone chip, testifies to that.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"An_Almost_Impossible_Ask\"><\/span>An Almost Impossible Ask<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>This is where the arrogance comes in. Yes, it\u2019s easy to look back on a year of lackluster Stadia performance and a disheartening closure of creative ambition, and tell Google what it\u00a0<em>should\u00a0<\/em>have done. \u201cThey should have made\u00a0<em>Portal<\/em>, but better\u201d is a pretty snobby thing to say: I am entirely fulfilling the role of Captain Hindsight.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Captain Hindsight\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/30mvxjcfCGI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know what Stadia\u2019s killer app could have been. Maybe the people that Google hired were working on just that, but they couldn\u2019t make it happen, for lack of time, talent, or simply not having an idea that delivered on all the points above. There\u2019s no shame in that: if I had the answers to the questions I\u2019m raising here, I\u2019d be working at Google\u2019s magical dream factory instead of playing tech pundit.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth pointing out that Google isn\u2019t the only international tech titan that struggling to break into the gaming space. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/features\/2021-01-29\/amazon-game-studios-struggles-to-find-a-hit?tag=reviewgeek-20\">Amazon has been trying to make its own game studio for years<\/a>, with some big bills and little success. It turns out that companies used to delivering infrastructure and logistics aren\u2019t great at pivoting to fields that are, to a greater or lesser degree, creative in nature.<\/p>\n<p>Looking backwards at this is fun, but not particularly helpful. What does Google shutting down its creative ambition for Stadia mean for players? It means that, for the foreseeable future, Stadia will be getting the same games as every other platform\u2014and a lot fewer of them, too. <em>Cyberpunk 2077<\/em> was as close as Stadia got to a killer app last year, and its rocky launch meant that even that didn\u2019t have the impact Stadia really needed.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-69579 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/thumbcache\/0\/0\/4402241a1d64ef89632d16de90a3589d\/p\/uploads\/2021\/02\/xeb35dee3.jpg.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+ws+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.5e-XVp8xFm.jpg\" alt=\"Cyberpunk 2077 promo image \" width=\"1000\" height=\"562\" data-credittext=\"Cd Projekt Red\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cyberpunk 2077 was the best example of Stadia\u2019s benefits to players last year. <span class=\"imagecredit\">Cd Projekt Red<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s been speculated that Google\u2019s focusing on Stadia\u2019s technology in an effort to farm it out. EA and Ubisoft might like a plug-and-play system for adding game streaming to those subscription plans they\u2019ve been hawking, and several developers are using streaming tech to bring high-powered graphics to the Switch. If Google hasn\u2019t thought of it, Amazon certainly has: Luna would be an easy thing to sell as a B2B service to other game publishers.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, Stadia fans can hardly help but see the closure of Stadia Games and Entertainment as a harbinger for the platform. From the day of its announcement, commenters have feared that less-than-stellar performance would doom Stadia to the Google Graveyard of abandoned projects and platforms. Those fears aren\u2019t going away any time soon.\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>setTimeout(function(){!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');fbq('init','1137093656460433');fbq('track','PageView');},3000);<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/69563\/stadia-needed-a-killer-app-game-now-its-probably-never-getting-one\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Stadia Needed a \u201cKiller App\u201d Game\u2014Now It\u2019s Probably Never Getting One \u2013 Review Geek&#8221; Google Yesterday Google announced that it was shutting down Stadia Games and Entertainment, the in-house publisher and developer it had created to bring first-party games to Stadia. In the post it said that it was focusing its investment on Stadia\u2019s platform&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/p\/uploads\/2021\/02\/1a075eaa.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}