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terça-feira, 19 de março de 2019

Google Stadia - Glimpse of the future?





With the introduction of Google Stadia today the gaming world became a bit more confusing. Don't get me wrong from a technical standpoint Stadia is amazing. Running on next-gen AMD custom hardware, and on top of Google's infrastructure you have to accept that what was presented was something special (well the controller..).

However technology alone does not make a product successful. I'd like to focus on two points:

- How much revenue will this generate for the content creators? We've seen some games moving from Steam to Epic with the promise of a bigger slice of the cake.
With the onus on Google/Microsoft/Apple, how much will it have to cost to be profitable for the provider and its partners?  Microsoft has a winning point here as already as an installed base of users, owns several game studios and seems willing into the integrate better with what exists now than the vision Google is selling.
Apple is rumoured to enter this market (https://www.techradar.com/news/apple-is-reportedly-putting-together-a-netflix-for-games-streaming-service), however if they choose to do so, partners are a must. Valve with SteamPlay (https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9439-QHKN-1308) , Steam RemotePlay (https://store.steampowered.com/streaming/) and the new Steam Link app (when they decide to unblock it ) Sony has recently announced streaming to iOS devices (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ps4-remote-play/id1436192460?mt=8).

- One thing i dislike about games with a big component on the cloud and multiplayer side, is that when the fanfare surrounding the game ends the company shutdowns the servers and boom no more game. Streaming for me has the potential to bring this to the whole catalog of games. As a gamer, even if i'm the only person on the world playing a given game i would like to have a chance to play it whenever i want and not have it removed from the catalog of available games because it is too old or just not good for business. And it is on this point i believe the existing game stores can thrive. Consider still the Nintendo Switch and the physical launch of games (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-11-17-nintendo-switch-is-dominated-by-physical-sales-game).