Little money and prospects. The developers told why they are not interested in Google Stadia
Only 6 games were added to Google Stadia in the first three months. There are 28 of them in the library. The Business Insider portal found out from a number of developers and publishers why they do not go to the site.
The media interviewed both indie authors and larger gaming companies. The sample size, however, is not given. In addition, the respondents wished to remain anonymous.
They named two main reasons why publishing on Google Stadia is unprofitable for them.
1) Google pays little
According to the respondents, they promise sums for placement on Stadia, which is pointless to discuss. “The Stadia team contacted us,” representatives of a well—known indie developer told the media. — Usually such offers (from distribution sites) contain some kind of incentive.” The offer from Stadia, on the contrary, “did not carry any benefits.” This statement was supported by many other developers, the publication writes.
Publishing on Stadia is complicated by other factors. The creators of game content could come to the site, if not for money, then for the audience. “There are venues with a large audience, and you come there for it. For example, on Steam or on Switch,” explained another developer.
But Stadia doesn’t have a large audience, and it’s not known when it will appear. At the same time, the platform can hold out on the market for a very short time, as it was with many other Google projects. This is the second reason:
2) It is unclear whether Google will be able to support Stadia and games on it for a long time
No wonder they say that Google has its own “digital cemetery”. The giant has canceled almost 200 projects that were launched or under development, which the developers are well aware of.
“Can you even imagine a long-term contract with Google? — noted one of the respondents. — Knowing Google’s history, I have no idea if Stadia will be alive in a year. This is not some out-of-the-ordinary case. For Google, this (cancellation of projects) is in the order of things.”
Absolutely all respondents were guided by this reason, the newspaper writes. Both reasons together demonstrate why Google was unable to attract developers either before or after the release of the platform.
Recall that Google Stadia was launched on November 19. The reaction to it was not too enthusiastic (for more details, see our material). Shortly after that, there was a lull on the platform: it was not updated for more than a month. Although Google promises to gradually add 150 more projects to the library, including Cyberpunk 2077 and DOOM Eternal.
Note that there are practically no indie games on Stadia. Of the 28 titles in the library, only 4 were created by independent developers.
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