Home Gaming Want an update on Stadia? It’s still a monumental disappointment

Want an update on Stadia? It’s still a monumental disappointment

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Users over on Reddit have started airing their frustrations towards Googles’ cloud gaming service and it’s more than a little sad.

Phil Harrison, vice president of Google LLC, holds the new Google gaming controller during an event at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, March 19, 2019. The Alphabet Inc. unit unveiled a new game streaming service called Stadia. The announcement marks a major new foray into the $180 billion industry for the internet giant. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

At this point it seems like beating a dead horse, I know, but considering how Stadia was touted as the next huge step forward for the video game industry the fact that it turned out to be such a painful disaster is staggering. The embarrassing thing is that the technology works, that’s not even the problem. Google has mismanaged Stadia and the business model surrounding it to such a severe extent that whatever promising technology was there has been largely ignored. Maybe I just enjoy the schadenfreude of it all, but checking in on the Stadia subreddit reveals users that are fed up with the program, compiling a fairly comprehensive list of everything that is still missing or broken.

Quoting from the post on the subreddit entitled “Stadia has officially gone 40 days without a new game announcement/release, feature update, or real community update. It has been out for 69 days. It’s time we demand better”:

So, where do we stand?

  • As expected, there haven’t been any further updates in January after the “120 game mystery bonanza” (other than February pro games, which we still don’t know)
  • Still supposedly 2+ months out until 4k on browser, any Assistant functionality at all, and the true wireless controller functionality advertised
  • 120 games coming but none revealed so far
  • Pixel phone remains the only Android phone with Stadia functionality
  • Still no mention of iOS
  • Still no mention at all of Stadia base
  • Still no mention of family sharing
  • Still no acknowledgement that they’ve read and/or are listening to the community (or plan on bettering their communication model)
  • Daily updates, scrapped for weekly updates, scrapped for… bi-monthly updates?

The purpose of the post was to highlight the major issues surrounding Stadia before the subscription renewal date in February while prompting some kind of response from Google. It’s currently the top post on the subreddit, showered with all kinds of awards, with over 800 comments mostly from people angrily agreeing in the most polite manner possible to avoid a ban.

Of course, to counter the claims that Google has continually distanced themselves from the community, Google went ahead and announced the games with Stadia Pro for February an hour after this post went live. GYLT, Metro Exodus and…no, wait that was it. Both games that are currently already available within Stadia’s already miniscule library.

stadia

What’s the point of all this? I suppose it’s largely to just keep tabs on the Stadia community and sympathise with them. As stated in the original post, it had been 40 full days since the Stadia Team made any kind of announcement while the system itself has only been out for 69 (nice) days. I imagine even those originally defending the system are reconsidering their positions. One can only hope that the Stadia Team, who is usually very active on the platform’s subreddit, actually hear these complaints and does something about them.

Last Updated: January 28, 2020

4 Comments

  1. MaSeKind

    January 28, 2020 at 13:28

    Even though my job depends on Google I find it incredibly satisfying to see them fail. Those idiots in Silicon Valley is so out of touch with the rest of the world it’s very entertaining to watch them come up with these amazing ideas that anyone else can immediately tell wouldn’t work.

    Reply

  2. Ricardo Harvey

    January 28, 2020 at 14:18

    im still hoping they disrupt the industry and take us to the next evolution in gaming. Throwing more pixels at us every year is not enough. VR and Stadia are the two bold steps taken this generation.

    Reply

    • HairyEwok

      January 28, 2020 at 16:20

      I would argue the next step in evolution gaming is putting a helmet on, lay on your bed and say LINK STARTO!

      Reply

    • Rob

      January 28, 2020 at 18:18

      Not really. Game Pass blows Stadia out of the water for impact.

      Reply

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