It looks like there are no plans for Knack, Half-Life 3, Pokemon, and Mom on Google Stadia
If there’s one thing Google needs to do if it wants to make a proper splash in the gaming world, it’s this: understand video games and the communities around them. Better still, it needs to convince gamers that it understands video games, rather than just trying to cash in.
Stadia is a promising service. It’s not in a great place at the moment, but I do believe Stadia and services like it are the future. Just look at xCloud - that stands a good chance of success because people believe Microsoft when it says it loves video games, and the value proposition for that service, especially if it pairs with Game Pass, is ridiculously good.
To convince people your brand really cares about something, you need to be reactive and have a human response to queries - especially on social media. Stadia is currently ballsing that right up. Either Google is using a bot to reply to questions from fans, or it really doesn’t understand the video game landscape at all.
If you search for “Stadia [insert pretty much any ridiculous game that will likely never be on Stadia here]” on Twitter, you’ll find dozens of instances of fans taking the p**s and Stadia coming across oblivious.
Here are some examples:
I’m sure you’re very disappointed that Knack 5, The Last of Us, Pokemon, and Half-Life 3 aren’t coming to Stadia any time soon.
If Google is serious about entering the gaming sphere, it needs more than ten timed exclusives - it needs a human touch and fast, if it wants anyone to take it seriously.