Google today (September 30) suddenly announced that its cloud gaming service Stadia is about to shut down, surprising many people.Surprisingly, most people think that’s also true: the Stadia service isn’t particularly cost-effective, and while there are plenty of games, it suffers from video compression, input lag, and other networking issues. Moreover, you need to pay the full amount to purchase games on the platform, and you need to pay an additional subscription fee for 4K cloud play. And Google’s own Stadia game development studio has been closed for a year.
For those who are using the Stadia service or even bought the corresponding hardware, this is not good news: these users will not be able to access their games, and although they will be refunded, the corresponding game progress saves will be gone forever. At the same time, the game developers making the Stadia version obviously waste a lot of time and energy. According to PC Gamer, many Stadia game developers on Twitter have said that they have just learned that Stadia is about to shut down.
Joe Blackburn, Game Director of Destiny 2, said: “The developers at Stadia have created a development platform that has allowed us to continue creating and evaluating Destiny 2 at home over the past few years. I’m sure today is a great experience for a lot of people. Tough, thank you for helping us make the game.”
Aadit Doshi, senior game programmer at Rocksteady, the developer of the Batman: Arkham series, said: “It’s fair to say that Google Stadia has faced a terrible dilemma over the past 3 years and had to deal with it: – The global pandemic has forced people to turn to Online entertainment. – Shortages of graphics cards and game consoles, leading to high demand for alternatives. If only they could enter the market at a better time.”
Necrosoft studio Brandon Sheffield said that while many people took it as a joke, Google Stadia’s developer revenue share was “the best of all cloud gaming services.” The news that their game, Hyper Gunsport, is coming to the platform in November and will recoup their development costs, hits them hard.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney naturally also expressed his opinion. He believes that Google Stadia has made a very solid and positive effort and has supported many developers. He thought it a pity that the service was shut down.
Tom Vian, co-founder of British developer “Tangle Tower” studio SFB Games, said that “Tangle Tower” was originally due to land on Stadia in two days, and The Verge reported that it was about to close. First time hearing the news. Rebecca Heinmean of the “Ice City Legend” studio also said in the comments that they also have a game about to be launched on the platform on November 1, and also just learned the news.
Game developer and consultant Rami Ismail said: “Part of me is saddened by Google’s amazing move with Stadia. When Google first pitched the project to me, long before it was released, they had a lot of cool ideas. But Conservative tactics, lack of trust in developers, and absolute underinvestment – Google killed it.”
Mike Rose, studio director of No More Robots, which recently launched the business simulation game Let’s Build a Zoo, echoed his shock, saying, “Oh my God…we’re going to have a game on Stadia in November. Who’s to guess if Google will refuse to pay the money they owe us because of this?”
PC Gamer said that they have contacted Google to ask about the studio that has reached a Stadia game deal with Google or a studio that independently develops Stadia games, what the news means, and whether there will be follow-up compensation measures.
As for those using Stadia, the service will run until January 18, 2023. Regarding save games, Google says that games that support cross-platform progress should have no problem, such as Destiny 2, but for “most games” that don’t support the feature, Google says it’s “impossible” to save progress.