Google Stadia Is Dead, But Was It Ever Really Alive?

Remember Google Stadia? It’s that revolutionary gaming service that was totally going to go toe to toe with video game consoles and gaming PCs – or at least that’s what Google said – not that we had to Google “Stadia” to get reminded of what the hell it is. Well, turns out Stadia only really proved a threat to the likes of Ouija or the literally glued-together Coleco Chameleon, and Google just quietly let us know of its demise. 

Google designed Stadia as an alternative to playing games as we do today. Instead of having to pay an absurd amount of money and having to create an equally absurd amount of space in your living room for a weirdly-designed PS5 or a not-designed-at-all Xbox Series X, the Stadia just required a controller, an Internet connection, and a subscription. Google would take care of the processing side of things in their state-of-the-art facilities.

Google clearly aimed at “Netflix for gaming,” but they only managed to land at Quibi. Or was it spelled Quiby? Why isn't Google helping?

From the get-go, the Stadia enjoyed an immense amount of pressure. All previous cloud gaming services had failed because of tremendous lag issues. It’s an issue because neither of the gaming landscape alternatives has to deal with it. Your character moving half a second after you’ve ordered him to teabag your dead opponent just won't cut it. The person you’ve just defeated might mistake it for hesitance, causing your e-reputation to tank hard. I kid, there’s no way anyone ever stood a chance to kill anyone else via a Stadia.

Google hasn't officially announced the system's demise; they're just internally moving away from games and “pivoting” to using the Stadia tech to promote other brands, like Peloton. That's great news … for Peloton at least, whose recent success point seems to be getting crapped on by TV shows.

Stadia's demise should make you sad not because of the huge cone of shame google will have to wear until their next spectacular failure, but because if not even Google is able to pull off Cloud Gaming, the writing most certainly is on the wall for the tech. 

Top Image: Google