Developers Say Google Didn't Offer Enough Money To Make Stadia Games (businessinsider.com) 51
After years of development and hype, Google's long-rumored push into video games arrived last November, with the launch of Google Stadia. Google Stadia isn't a game console, nor is it a game platform, really -- it's a digital storefront run by Google where you can buy individual games. It's a hugely ambitious new platform, and it aimed to be the Netflix of gaming. What makes Stadia so ambitious? Rather than downloading games or playing them off a Blu-ray disc, Stadia streams games to you wherever you are, like Netflix streams movies and TV shows. However, four months after Stadia's launch, the service is still extremely light on games: Just 28 titles are available as of this week. From a report: We spoke with game developers and publishers who said there are two main reasons their games aren't on Stadia: Google didn't offer them enough money, and they don't trust the mercurial company to stick with gaming in the long term. "We were approached by the Stadia team," one prominent indie developer told me. "Usually with that kind of thing, they lead with some kind of offer that would give you an incentive to go with them." But the incentive "was kind of non-existent," they said. "That's the short of it." It's a statement we heard echoed by several prominent indie developers and two publishing executives we spoke with for this piece. "It's that there isn't enough money there," one of the publishing executives we spoke with said. The offer was apparently "so low that it wasn't even part of the conversation." The "incentive" isn't solely financial, but it's the main part of the equation. "When we're looking at these types of deals," another prominent indie developer said, "We're looking at 'Is this enough money where we have the resources to make what we want, or is this an exclusivity deal that gives us security?'" they said.
Ok Hell, get your coats ready (Score:5, Funny)
Because I just actually recognized that slashvertizement CAN work. I'd never heard of Stadia before this, and I'm quite interested to know more.
Re:Ok Hell, get your coats ready (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess you missed the previous [slashdot.org] articles [slashdot.org] mentioning [slashdot.org] Stadia [slashdot.org] over [slashdot.org] the [slashdot.org] past [slashdot.org] year [slashdot.org]?
Anyhow, Google's reputation for starting public experiments and subsequently shutting them down are now coming back to bite them in the ass. Who the hell would pour any amount of resources into an obviously experimental Google project, especially when it's blindingly obvious that it's worse for consumers in every conceivable way? A pure subscription service in which you get access to a large number of titles in perpetuity (or hell, even rotating) would make sense. But to have to BUY a streamed game? Completely nonsensical.
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I guess you missed the previous articles mentioning Stadia over the past year?
I mean... when you put it like THAT, I feel like maybe I need to stay inside more ;)
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I am a prime target for the Stadia subscription. I have PS+ but no new PlayStation. I'd happily save on a console and switch to Stadia if I thought the hardware would have any value in a year.
As it is, it's 1/4 or so the cost of a console but who knows the life cycle.
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I'd never heard of Stadia before this, and I'm quite interested to know more.
The Stadia is a lot like the Apple Pippin, Nokia N-Gage, and Nintendo Virtual Boy.
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Perhaps they paid developers better?
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OnLive isn't a total failure, Guess who owns the OnLive technology and incorporated it into their own streaming service which also incorporates Gaikai tech....... Sony.
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OnLive was janky as hell, at least it was on a wired connection using my 50mbit (at the time) cable internet service.
GeForce NOW has worked well for me performance wise, though it uses gobs of data (I think the 1080p60 rate uses an average of 32Mbit as reported by router).
And I was on the Stadia Demo and was able to play through Assassin's Creed Odyssey without much issue. It had more random hangups than GeForce Now, but I was also accessing it via a 5 year old 11 inch chromebook using 802.11N. I think it
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I've followed it a little bit as the news has developed. From what I can tell, at this moment, in order to even dip your toes in Stadia, you need to purchase "Stadia Premiere" for $130, which includes 3-months free service, after which you pay $10 per month. What does this get you? I haven't been able to tell, exactly. They have a list of games on the site, but some of them, like Cyerpunk 2077, aren't even released yet, so their list is obviously not actually representative of what you get when you sign up.
Re:Ok Hell, get your coats ready (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, no.
The $10/month includes ONE game - Destiny 2.
For all the other games, you have to pay FULL RETAIL.
It's not like Netflix, or Amazon prime, or any of the streaming services. It's an online store to sell you full-priced games that you can ONLY stream via Google's service. You don't get physical media, or anything else. Quit paying the $10/month (which you have to pay *in addition* to purchasing the games), and you no longer can play your games.
It's stupid. It's so stupid it's hard to believe it's a real thing. NOBODY is using it, and nobody will. It's DOA.
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And when they die, so does your entire games collection. Don't count on them sending you a physical copy, or a voucher to get these games on Steam. Fuck Google. They must really think their users are stupid, and I am sad to say that for many of them, Google is right. :\
Do I really need to play a high end console or PC game on my phone riding the train as opposed to just playing Angry Birds, and waiting to get home to play the high end game? Assuming the signal can somehow not be craptacular while o
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it's sure to die as soon as MS/Sony launch thier services
Sony launched their service, Playstation Now, 6 years ago. It's only become more popular recently when the price became reasonable Before that...not so much
Ho...ly... (Score:1)
(My jaw is on the floor, and all I can manage is a Woooooooooooooowwwww!!!!)
It's as if they wanted Stadia to be DOA. %|
Imagine the worst of all worlds, and you get Stadia. Oh, you can play on multiple devices, but you might as well use something like PC Anywhere for this feature and avoid the whole Stadia shit show all together.
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Here's how it plays out:
Stadia Pro:
$9.99 / month
Three months included in Premiere Edition.
Part of Premiere Edition
Resolution: Up to 4K4 on TVs1 and high definition on PCs and select tablets and phones2
Frame rate: 60 FPS
Sound: 5.1 surround sound on TVs1 and stereo sound on select tablets and phones2
Buy games whenever you want: Yes
Additional free games released regularly: Yes, starting with Destiny 2: The Collection
Stadia Pro-exclusive discounts on select game purchases: Yes
Then there's a free option:
Stadia Base:
Coming in 2020
Free
Resolution: Up to 1080p
Frame rate: 60 FPS
Sound: Stereo
Buy games whenever you want: Yes
Additional free games released regularly: No
Stadia Pro-exclusive discounts on select game purchases: No
To sum it up:
For $129 you get:
The Stadia Pro subscription (3 months worth, after which it's $9.99 per month which is $120/yr)
A controller and Chromcast Ultra
A game (currently Destiny 2) with the promise of more free games later, but it doesn't say if you can play each free game forever, of if only 1 free game at a time
The option to buy games (I couldn't find a price for games however) whenever you want
Lots of uncertainty about what's to come
Cyerpunk 2077 buy it on GOG AND NO DRM!!!! (Score:2)
Cyerpunk 2077 buy it on GOG AND NO DRM!!!!
Where was the truckload of money? (Score:3)
It's been a few years, but how many remember the EA exec stating "Apple gave us a truckload of money to delay the Android version" [giantbomb.com] for being the earlier platform for a game?
For the major games that have a $50M budget, a few million dollars might be enough to entice some exclusivity or being the first platform. But these days, even "bargain bin" games are in the $10M range, and the increasingly common "VR experiences" are $1M investments. Polished phone apps are similarly million dollar ventures even for modest projects.
I don't see how they expected to bring in developers without offering truckloads of money. The company has $117B cash reserves, so several truckloads of money would be smaller than a rounding error on investor reports.
I'm not much of a gamer (Score:2)
But I do keep up with gaming news, and new releases, etc.
I keep forgetting Stadia was (is?) a thing.
Probably not a ringing endorsement.
Is it listed in the Google Graveyard yet?
Re:I'm not much of a gamer (Score:5, Funny)
Is it listed in the Google Graveyard yet?
It was, but then they killed off Google Graveyard.
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Yet you were fine when games were exclusive to Steam, UPlay, Origin, Battle.net, etc.?
At least Epic gives devs (publishers) a fair cut. Steam's standard 30% is absurd. That's the legacy standard for PHYSICAL RETAIL.
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Also with steams 30% you get basically stadia service, from your own PC. Because of steam I dont need to own a console to play something elsewhere in the house. I dont need stadia to play something outside of the house. I can do it all because of steam streaming to any android and ios device. I can sit on the couch and play on the ipad, or flip over to a firestick or shield and play my games.
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Yet you were fine when games were exclusive to Steam, UPlay, Origin, Battle.net, etc.?
The only games which were ever exclusive to those platforms were games created by the owners of those platforms. So yes I am fine with it. If you don't understand the difference between self publishing and going to 3rd party publishers looking for a handout in exchange for an exclusivity deal (a concept introduced to PC gaming for the first time by Epic games) then you're beyond help.
At least Epic gives devs (publishers) a fair cut. Steam's standard 30% is absurd.
Epic provides a crappy store that often barely functions as a launcher and they always take the same cut. Steam provides a st
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- native cross platform versions of some games, depending on the developer
- an open source framework for running your windows steam games on linux with wine
I'd prefer game devs to support linux natively, but my primary desktop has been linux with steam for years now.
Makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)
Google killing off everything that doesn't become hugely popular seems to be biting them in the butt here.
Any sane company would look at the huge list of defunct Google services and those that didn't take off at all, and want to be sure they're going to make some money for their troubles.
Re: Makes sense (Score:4, Informative)
Google killing off everything that doesn't become hugely popular seems to be biting them in the butt here.
Stadia was a dogshit, MBA-inspired joke from the get-go and its inevitable end won't be the problem but rather the solution. One of them, anyhow.
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Google killing off everything that doesn't become hugely popular seems to be biting them in the butt here.
Any sane company would look at the huge list of defunct Google services and those that didn't take off at all, and want to be sure they're going to make some money for their troubles.
I think they learned that trick from Microsoft.... Microsoft has a history of just suddenly pulling the plug on anything that isn't a huge success...and usually screwing over their partners in the process too.
Re:Makes sense (Score:4, Funny)
That's the reason I use Apple Pages instead of Microsoft Word or Google Docs. At least with Pages you know it runs on a lot of platforms, from the Mac mini and MacBook Air all the way to the Mac Pro!
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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Maps is pretty good.
They BOUGHT maps and the navigation and traffic components. They don't make the Pixel phones. Sure, they had a "Made By Google" ad campaign, but the actual design and manufacture of the phones is done by other companies.
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GeForce Now (Score:3, Insightful)
GeForce Now is better. $5/month (for the next year - they plan the jack it up), buy games on Steam and play them in the cloud. It's basically just simplified rental and configuration of a VM. I'm surprised they bothered to comply when Bethesda and Rockstar bitched out and asked for their games to be "removed".
BTW, fuck Bethesda and Rockstar. I paid for the games, and I'm loading them through my personal Steam account. You want to double-dip because the computer I'm playing on is a few miles away?
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GeForce now sounds pretty interesting but needing to buy hardware from a specific vendor to be able to use the service leaves a bitter taste in me.
And Bethesda... Forget them, they're corrupted by Zenimax through and through, I've been a massive fan of TES, but all the bullshit from the creation club and the Atom Club or whatever it's called, have driven me away from their future products.
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GeForce now sounds pretty interesting but needing to buy hardware from a specific vendor to be able to use the service leaves a bitter taste in me.
What makes you think you need NVIDIA hardware? Sure, if you had a ShieldTV you had guaranteed access to the beta, but it was easy enough to apply and get access without a shield. I have used GeForce NOW on a crappy old intel laptop with integrated graphics no problem.
Why did they make it so hard to Port to Stadia? (Score:1)
What I am curious about is why is it so hard to port games to Stadia?
From what I have heard the Stadia platform is basically a fork of Linux. There are already thousands of games already ported over to Linux. Why is Google not taking advantage of that?
I understand that Google has probably added a bunch of libraries and hacks to the Stadia platform to reduce latency and other issues involved with being a streaming platform. That kind of thing would be cruicial for AAA blockbuster titles like DOOM and Assassi
Money? For what? (Score:2)
Guaranteed these people whining about money for development are the same ones who don't pay for the songs or movies they have in their collection. If they're not willing to compensate an artist for the work they've done, why should they expect to be compensated for their work?
An ad company (Score:1)
The content around the ads is for others to invest, take the risk over and spend on.
Then slot the ads and tracking in once the "games" sell.
It's the Nvidia Shield! (Score:1)
Not like Netflix at all (Score:2)
Netflix doesn't ask me to buy a movie before streaming it to me.