As if it needs to be addressed, Google Stadia has seen a rocky start - to say the least. Despite being widely regarded as a good idea in concept, the streaming service has yet to gain significant traction since releasing to early adopters back in November 2019. A combination of missing features, inconsistent quality, and a dismally small library of games has positioned Stadia as more of a novelty than the next generation of gaming. The first two items on that list are more or less on Google to rectify, but the third begs the question: Where are all the games?
In a recent article by Business Insider, a handful of anonymous indie devs and publishing executives expressed why they are reluctant to pursue a deal with Google to bring their games to the streaming service, and it seems to be in no short part due to the uncertain future of Stadia itself.
"with Google's history, I don't even know if they're working on Stadia in a year" says one developer. "That wouldn't be something crazy that Google does. It's within their track record."
They're not wrong, unfortunately. Anyone who has been following Google's business initiatives for the past two decades will likely recall a sleuth of products from the company that ultimately ended up canned when they failed to capture a large enough audience. The list is quite staggering.
As one astute publishing exec pointed out, it's easy to look to Google's gravitas as reason enough to get on board with Stadia, despite its shortcomings - both perceived and factual. "With Google, it's easy to look at them as, well — it's Google! If anyone's gonna make it work, it's them. But they've failed a ton in the past and walked away from major services."
In response, a Google spokesperson insisted that more games are coming, and that there are, in fact, developers that support Stadia.
"The publishers and developers we speak with regularly are very supportive, and want Stadia to succeed. It is also worth pointing out that not every publisher has announced their games for Stadia so far, and more games will continue to be announced in due course."
Regardless of Google's optimistic, albeit obligatory, forecast for Stadia, the fact that there is this much apparent doubt shrouding the service's future is legitimately concerning. While both old and new AAA titles will likely continue to trickle onto the streaming platform, Stadia's lasting viability will almost certainly be negatively impacted if it can't convince the indie community that it's here to stay.