Google tries to centralise Gaming

So, you might not have seen, but Google will be launching a system called Stadia this year. It’s a gaming streaming service… which means that you don’t run the game yourself, they run the game and you play it.

This tech looks really impressive from what they’ve shared so far. You launch a game through any Google platform (a link in an e-mail, a button on YouTube, etc) and you can play it through any device that has a browser. You can use any controller, but they’re also releasing their own controller that connects directly to their data centres… not to your screen… which should mean that the action you take is picked up by everyone immediately. This also means that you can switch devices while you’re playing (from a computer to a phone to a tablet) without any disruption to your game.

To accomplish this, they’re effectively creating their own internet to reduce lag.

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I love that Google is entering the gaming space, the more players (boom tish) the better. The main reason for this move is to reinforce YouTube as a game watching platform (you can easily join the game your favourite streamer is playing and play with them) and to force people into their ecosphere. This should mean that games can be cross-platform, which means I can play with my friends regardless of what device they have… which is a problem I’ve had in the past where some of my friends had an Xbox and some had a PlayStation.

It’ll be interesting to see if you can join particular servers based on your hardware… otherwise anyone playing on a desktop with automatically win every game because a mouse is always quicker than a controller.

The potential for huge thousand-player games is massive, and really exciting. Development companies have always had to make decisions about how restrictive they want their game to be… the more amazing the graphics, the more intense the action, the fewer people with hardware that can play it. This ‘should’ no longer be the case, as Google can upscale any game in their data centres.

I am absolutely all for advancement and progress, and a lot of these steps are really, really exciting… but I’m worried that this move with limit the options of customers, not increase them.

Apple, Xbox, Playstation, Amazon, Valve, Nvidia and Microsoft are all building their own streaming services… because they’ve all worked out that you can earn way more with the monthly subscription model than a one time payment. I pay way more for Word and Excel than I ever did in the past.

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Google hasn’t explained the payment structure yet, whether it’s monthly sub or you pay for minutes… but it does mean you can play whatever games they have available without having to purchase each game. It’s also not clear how the developers get paid… does Google pay them a flat fee or a percentage of minutes played.

At the moment, some games are PlayStation exclusives, and some are only available on Xbox… but on the whole, most games are available most places. When I buy a game… I have that game forever… and possibly because I’m older, but I play old favourites really often. My internet connection is also really crappy, so I have a few games that I happily play without a connection.

My concern is that each streaming platform will try and pin down particular games to be exclusives on their platform… much like we’ve seen in television and music. Gamers will basically need to decide which streaming service they like, and then only play the games available there… and if your favourite game disappears because it wasn’t making enough money, then that’s bad luck.

If you want to play Fifa 2020, you have to join Google. You want to play Batman, you have to join Apple, etc… and your progress in Fifa 2019 disappears once Fifa 2020 is launched.

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Most likely gamers will pay for multiple streaming services, and jump around depending on where their friends are… this will very likely be way more expensive than buying a console every 4-7 years and a game once or twice a year.
Google’s move also attempts to wipe out the device market, since their controller connects directly to their servers, which I do like… the less plastic in the world the better… but it also sets Stadia up as the gatekeeper. I think Indie developers will have some very serious decisions to make in the future… and like fashion models these days, you might only get your work out there if you already have a substantial social media presence.

As with everything, there’s pros and cons… some people will be better off, and some people will be worse off. Internet connection will mean absolutely everything, along with proximity to a Google datacentre.

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Like most subscription services (which Google hasn’t confirmed, but I think is the most likely payment plan), companies get the most value when people are paying for a service but not actually using that service… it’s the whole business model of gyms. At the moment, if I don’t play any games for months because work is busy, that doesn’t cost me anything… but with a Stadia subscription I might not want to pause or quit the service because I’ll lose my progress.

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What’s interesting is that I think we’ll have even less in common with our friends and family. Remember when a TV show was on, and everyone would talk about it the next morning? As people can only afford one or two accounts, those conversations have dried up. Soon you’ll only watch YouTube movies and play Google Games… or Apple TV and Apple games, etc… All your content history will be with one ecosystem. Moving from one to another means you’ll lose game progress, where you were up to with shows, etc.

There’s a commercial in the final season of Parks and Rec where a company’s tagline is “1 of 8 remaining companies”, and Stadia feels like a really strong step in that direction.

Obviously… with my Steam account and PS4, nothing is stopping me from continuing to play my older games that I own… but eventually this won’t be an option as owning your own games will be phased out completely.

It’s interesting that everyone here is working towards a decentralised arena while these massive companies are throwing billions of dollars into creating the best walled gardens they can.

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Maybe it'll all be amazing and I have nothing to worry about... maybe games are better rented than owned. I guess we'll see.