It’s been a little more than three months sinceGoogleStadia launched, and instead of conquering the video game world like Google said it would, the cloud gaming service has had a rocky start. There have been numerous problems with the service, from games not streaming in 4K as promised, tousers reporting Stadia overheating Chromecasts.
These are serious problems, but the number one problem gamers and critics keep bringing up isGoogle Stadia’s lack of games. According to an interview with an indie developer, the reason there are so few games on Stadia is thatGoogleisn’t offering developers enough money.
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Though Google Stadia launched back in November, it’s still sitting on a paltry library of 28 games. Granted, there are some big titles in Stadia’s library.Borderlands 3is playable, andCyberpunk 2077andBaldur’s Gate 3will be releasing on the service in the future. There are also a total of 120 additional games set to come out on Stadia before the end of 2020. However, of the 28 titles currently available on Stadia, only four of them are indie games. Meanwhile, major indie games likeBloodstained,Shovel Knight, andDead Cellsare available on all the other major consoles– just not Stadia.
The main reason for this is that indie developers don’t have any incentive to make games forGoogle Stadia. A publishing exec said the offer they got from Google was “so low that it wasn’t even part of the conversation.” It’s not just the lack of money that’s keeping developers away, though. Every developer that was asked on their reasons for avoiding Stadia also brought up their lack of faith in the cloud gaming service’s staying power.
Though Google is one of the largest tech companies in the world, that doesn’t automatically spell success. One publishing exec mentioned that “[Google] failed a ton in the past and walked away from major services,” such as Google Glass. Another developer said the only appeal they saw was the chance to be the “first on the platform.” Now that the launch titles are out of the way, Stadia doesn’t really have anything to offer indie devs.
Due to a lack of adequate payment and long-term confidence, it’s clearGooglehas to spend less timeexpanding Stadia to more mobile phonesand more time focusing on attracting indie developers. While AAA titles are still a major concern for any platform, the indie game market is an essential aspect to any new system’s success, as is evident by the Switch’s roster of indie games.
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