Google Is Finally Ditching Stadia, Says Insider

Dear lord, what a sad little life, Stadia. Be honest with me here, did anyone ever truly believe that Stadia was going to be the next big thing? I can’t say I personally know anyone who did, but it looks like any resilient fans may soon be losing their last shred of hope of the platform going anywhere at all.

A year ago, Google claimed that it saw Stadia more like a “technology platform for industry partners” instead of, y’know, an actual rival platform to the likes of Xbox and PlayStation (which is a real backpedal on what they were saying at launch, let’s face it). Now, according to Business Insider (and reported by The Verge), it sounds like Stadia as a whole has been demoted within Google.

ICYMI... check out Google's very dramatic reveal video for Stadia below.

Apparently, the new priority is to use Stadia to power things from other companies, such as Bungie, Capcom, and Peloton, rather than bring more actual games to it. I’m sure we can agree that less priority to new games is exactly what Stadia needed.

If you happen to own a Peloton bike, you can check out exactly what they mean. According to Business Insider, Peloton’s first game, Lanebreak, was powered by Google Stream, the new name for their cloud gaming technology. I’ve got to say this is my first time hearing about there being games of any sort on Peloton, which admittedly probably says more about my state of fitness rather than anything else.

In case you were wondering what the so-called "demote" amounts to, the Stadia boss, Phil Harrison, now reports to Google’s vice president of subscription services, Jason Rosenthal, rather than directly to hardware boss Rick Osterloh. Clearly, it just isn't being given the same priority as it was before - which you can’t exactly blame them for. 

Over on Twitter, the official Stadia account have responded to the news: “If you hear one thing, hear this: The Stadia team is working really hard on a great future for Stadia and cloud gaming,” they wrote. “We hope you agree, and we know the proof is in the playing.”

If you hear one thing, hear this: The Stadia team is working really hard on a great future for Stadia and cloud gaming.

We hope you agree, and we know the proof is in the playing.

— Stadia ☁️🎮 (@GoogleStadia) February 5, 2022

Whatever you say, Stadia. They also added that there’s more “feature goodness” on the way soon too, but based on the service's track record, I doubt this will be anything worth getting excited about.