In February Google announced it would be closing Stadia Games and Entertainment. Google will be laying off 150 developers after only 2 years. Google was unable to manage the process of game development. After sinking millions of dollars into Stadia’s games development, they pulled the plug before Stadia had a chance. 

The issues with Stadia have worsened since it’s announcement in 2019. Many of the promises at the time seemed far fetched. Cloud gaming is almost impossible for some. In addition to the lack of any 1st party games, Stadia had very little to offer. It was marketed as the cheaper, more versatile alternative to consoles. However, its lack of a subscription style service like Xbox Game Pass meant paying $60 for a new game on an inferior platform. Stadia could not meet Google’s expectations. Games from 3rd party developers are now Google’s focus.

The management issues with Stadia go further than this. Video game reporter for Bloomberg, Jason Schreier tweeted this regarding Stadia’s closing “Just to reiterate the absurdity of this thing: Sources say Google spent tens of millions of dollars- the budgets of some major games- PER Stadia port.” He continued, “Pay $20 million to Ubisoft to port Assassin’s Creed and The Division Or Pay $1 million to 20 small developers to each build something cool, betting that at least one of them will be a hit like Stardew Valley or Valheim.” Google tried to approach Stadia with the same business model as their other projects. This approach didn’t work out in the end.