A beta version of Stadia called Project Stream appeared in 2018, but the developers were instructed to launch the platform in 2019. This would not allow them to live up to expectations and fulfill all promises, so they asked for another beta test, which caused resistance among the leadership.
Google has spent tens of millions of dollars on games from publishers like Ubisoft and Take-twoincluding Red dead redemption 2, went to Stadia. However, the platform needed exclusives, so the company hired Jade Raymond, a former producer. Assassin’s Creed and Watch dogs, which has spearheaded internal game development.
Despite promising presentations, Schreier notes, after launching in November 2019, Stadia users were disappointed with the small library of games and the lack of promised features.
The business model was also questionable. Users had to buy each game separately, rather than pay a subscription to access all of them at once.
As a result, Stadia fell short of expectations in terms of controller sales and monthly active users by hundreds of thousands. So many controllers were produced that at one point they were even given away for free.
Despite the bad launch, Stadia’s developers hoped they could win over fans with exclusive games as long as Google gives them time.
However, on February 1, 2023, Google announced that Stadia will continue to exist as a service and offer third-party games, but without exclusives, as Schreier notes, it hardly has a chance to gather a multimillion audience.
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