What did you folks expect? These games cost upwards of $200 million to develop and market, and you want them ALL at an affordable subscription cost?
Not necessarily
those games, but...
Netflix doesn't even have the majority of good or recent movies. How would a service like that survive if it didn't provide the majority of popular games? Do you think video game consumers would be happy with a service full of older content? It's hard to envision an all-inclusive subscription service that could work, and I imagine that's why google went with this model instead.
I believe there's value in a service that has a copious amount of older content. There are a lot of older games that I'd love to fiddle around with, but never really felt like purchasing at the prices they were offering. That's actually one of the things that I find appealing about PlayStation Now--I can jump in and play a whole bunch of games that I never bought for one reason or another.
Maybe it's just me and my passion for classic video games, but would
love to see Stadia host a huge collection of retro games. Imagine having instant access to games from Atari 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision, NES, Genesis, TG-16, SNES, NeoGeo, Saturn, old computer platforms, etc. GameTap did this a decade ago, and I thought it was great! This would be a great opportunity for Stadia to reach a segment of the market that isn't currently being addressed adequately.
Moving on from the "big game library" (PS Now/Xbox Game Pass) concept...even with games only being sold a la carte, I personally feel Stadia would have a much better shot if they offered a good number of free or inexpensive (under $10) games. I'm not inclined to to throw down $50 to $60 for a single game on a new and unproven service. If I'm going to spend that kind of money, then I'd rather just buy those games on PSN or Steam. I would
maybe consider getting a cheap little $5 or $10 games for kicks, especially if it's a game that isn't readily available elsewhere.
Honestly, you make a really good point and I agree with you . Maybe I am just old or whatever but I hate having to pay a never ending payment for something I never actually own. I would much rather shell out 400 every 6 years and just be done with it. The only way I would consider giving this a try and not just sticking with my PS or Xbox would be if it was a Netflix of games and I paid a cheapish subscription (under 20 a month) and got a mix of older titles I had missed on launch, indies and a few big bangers every now and again
Good post. I know this isn't what Google has planned for Stadia now, but I hope they move in this direction.