I have been a huge proponent of Stadia since the service launched because the tech is mind-blowingly good, but this is a bunch of bullshit. Just sell the tech to MS so they can make the very necessary improvements to xCloud and let's all move on.
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So, apparently Stadia has reneged on previously agreed payments for future Stadia Pro games, and instead forcing engagement-based payouts
- Thread starter Delusibeta
- Start date
- Rumor
I give like almost every company the benefit of the doubt about products. But there is one exception and that is Google. Stadia is the next one in their line of failed products that are gonna get killed.. And it seems they are slowly getting there with pissing people off
I feel bad for people who invested in this platform, because ultimately, Google will kill it, use the tech for something else, and move on without blinking. It seems to be their MO these days. I can't understand how people invest in Google hardware, considering their track record for support is so abysmal (comparatively to those in competing industries).
In law, this is called an "illusory bargain." It's usually enough to get out of a contract if you're the victim of such a scheme.
Easier said than done, unfortunately.
How many Stadia Pro subs could there be tbh? 50,000? I feel like these "variable payments" will end up being peanuts. This feels like Google trying to get the game devs to advertise the platform for them since they'll make more if people play through Stadia, but I don't think this will end up working in the end
Them and Supermassive were making exclusives for Stadia. But it's been like a year and a half and neither the devs nor google confirm it's still happening. Considering they were exclusives they were likely going to be published by Stadia Games and Entertainment, which is what Google already killed off in February. My guess is that those contracts were just cancelled.
Is this something just for smaller indie devs, or are they trying to pull this across the board with big publishers too?
I could easily see the majority of devs take their ball and go home rather than stick around for such a scummy deal, especially big publishers. And then Google will have an excuse to say they "didn't have any support" from devs and publishers and that's why they had to pull the plug on something they were "never" going to pull the plug on.
I could easily see the majority of devs take their ball and go home rather than stick around for such a scummy deal, especially big publishers. And then Google will have an excuse to say they "didn't have any support" from devs and publishers and that's why they had to pull the plug on something they were "never" going to pull the plug on.
The way Stadia does multiplayer is going to make it really hard to hit big engagement numbers. It's not really a gacha heavy platform either so I don't know what they're expecting.
The positioning of Xcloud and Stadia just goes to show you how important it is to have the right executive/voice to steer the product
Everybody would probably agree that Stadia's tech is better, but I'm using Xcloud on a semi regular basis and have never subscribed to Stadia
Everybody would probably agree that Stadia's tech is better, but I'm using Xcloud on a semi regular basis and have never subscribed to Stadia
Addendums to contracts typically have to be agreed upon and signed by both parties. I imagine Google may of strong armed smaller developers/publishers into signing this.
The thing is that it's not that huge of an undertaking for Microsoft to improve xCloud's actual streaming tech as it goes. It takes a massive investment and years of losses to build up an actual platform and ecosystem, and the relationships/infrastructure (not cloud infrastructure) that goes along with it, and THAT is the work Google aren't doing.
Stadia undoubtedly have a superior actual streaming experience right now, but I would bet all of my money on xCloud to prevail because of the above, if I had to choose one.
Stadia feels like a service where Google felt like they could just saunter into the gaming industry because they are Google, and anything they launched would be a success because Google. They fundamentally failed to understand the industry they were entering.
Completely agree with all of your points. xCloud is able to survive right now even if the actual streaming tech is not first class because they have made it part of their ecosystem, and not the entire focus. People are willing to give them time to sort it out because it's purely a value add for them at this point.
OP
OP
It's very careful wording: they're arguing Pro revenue will be additional to game sale revenue (presumably from non-Pro subscribers). There's nothing on guaranteed lump sums in exchange for making your game available for all active Pro subscribers.
Ah, ok. So it's the initial lump sum that developers may not be getting from previous agreements for putting their game on Pro. They'll still get the new 85/15 split that Google is introducing from sales in addition to the 70 split from Pro if they put their game free for Pro subscribers.
Close all of your first party studios, piss off the few third parties willing to put titles on your platform. A+ strategy.
Disgusting way to burn off their limited goodwill. This won't help attract developers in the future but drive them away.
Breaking promises is gross, especially for a company as rich as google. Stadia has been a massive disaster.
Also, engagement-based payouts is the death of creativity
Also, engagement-based payouts is the death of creativity
As I understand it, the deal is unchanged for games bought outright on Stadia. The change is in the compensation for allowing a game to be free with Stadia Pro.
Nope, with these round of changes Google actually increased the amount devs/pubs get by 15 percent (85/15 split) which will start in October. They'll still get a split from game sales plus the additional Pro 70 percent split if they put their game free for Pro subscribers. From how this reads it sounds like (if true) then some developers were promised a lump sum one-time payout to put their game free on Pro but will now be put on the 70 percent revenue sharing and not get a lump sum.
EDIT: Stadia is not really a "Netflix-style" business model so the Pro library is a relatively small library compared to the titles you can buy (signing up now gets you around 30 from their library of around 200, Pro titles can be bought as well) and is populated mostly by smaller/indie titles.
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I can only assume most posters in the thread thought the same as you, thus the extreme sky-is-falling responses. But no, this is a change just for the handful of future games booked to appear "free" on Pro (their service akin to Games with Gold or PS Plus)
As mentioned in a recent thread, this is exactly what Game Pass does already. For every game at the start, now for only some of them after some devs didn't go for it - and Phil hopes most will go for engagement-based methods in the future.
I feel like Microsoft got baited into preparing for a nuclear war and the Google and Amazon showed up with water pistols.
i didn't think it was going to survive in the first place but now, lollll
How much damage can google do poisoning the well for future companies who try to make streaming the right way?
Xcloud being tightly integrated into gamepass in advertising makes sense now as gamepass has the goodwill to weather these storms (and the fact they keep saying it's a beta to sidestep all these comparisons too)
Xcloud being tightly integrated into gamepass in advertising makes sense now as gamepass has the goodwill to weather these storms (and the fact they keep saying it's a beta to sidestep all these comparisons too)
Just so there's no confusion later.
The 85/15 split is only for the first 3 million, so that's up to 450k, assuming your game gets to 3 million in revenue.
The 70% Pro Revenue split will be for all Pro games so it's not actually going to be 70% but a small part of it, where the slice will be bigger based on how many people play your game that month and how many session days (log in at least once that day) that game accrues. So it'll largely favor the big/popular games and/or the games that give you reasons to log in daily.
I hoped that Google could have brought something to this industry: maybe found some could games, establish new studios, bring to light new creatives/talent people, easier development tools, etcétera.
I was excited after seeing Google Stadia presentation.
But, they only proved how much they don't understand about the product they are launching.
I was excited after seeing Google Stadia presentation.
But, they only proved how much they don't understand about the product they are launching.
I invested in Stadia. Got couple games that I played and loved. If Google turns servers off, they would have to refund me paid games as per their refund policy, so I wouldn't mind much, I would just move to GFN or xCloud.
Who cares? I completed those games and spent quite a lot of hours.