Stadia - a revolution in the gaming industry?

For those who are in the tank: March 19, 2019, Google announced the streaming service Stadia . A service that allows you to play all the games, in fact, right in the browser. From any device, be it a tablet, smartphone, TV set-top box, PC, toaster, calculator, refrigerator .

In this small article I would like to express my thoughts about the future of the gaming industry if the initiative from Google succeeds. I just want to warn you that I am not an expert in the field and, for the most part, all of the following is my personal opinion.

We all know that at the moment there are several streaming services that operate (Playkey, Playstation Now, etc.), but have not gained popularity among the masses. For different reasons. The announcement from Google shook up the gaming community, analysts (and not so much) started talking about revolution, predicting the death of consoles. And the main argument: “it's Google”.
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Well, that sounds kind of true. And if you believe, it is also beautiful. He came home after a hard day, sat down at his old Celeron, opened Metro Exodus in the browser, played, cut it all over the Internet, went to the toilet, continued playing on the smartphone, and so on. In general, it sounds really beautiful. I will not delve into the technical component of this issue, just take it as a constant - technically everything will be at the highest level.

But confuses, first of all, the confidence of all admiring Stage that all games will work with Google. And how will Stadia spread? By subscription? Or do you have to pay for the games? For the user it will be more convenient to subscribe. For the developer, payment is more likely. Maybe a hybrid model? Do you want the game to your account? Pay. Want to play for rent? Take a subscription. But what about prices?

If Google chooses a subscription model. How much will such a subscription cost? After all, the developer will have to abandon the usual distribution of games, of course, digital copies of games will still be sold, because Stadia will not take the whole market for themselves, yet sales of digital copies will fall dramatically. But will Google be able to compensate developers for losses? Microtransactions will reach a new level. Lutboks will be everywhere, because developers need money. All games will become essentially f2p with in-game items at every turn.

If Google chooses a game selling model like on Steam, Epic Games Store, etc. You have an account, you buy a game, get it on your account and you can play from anywhere. Option yet 2.

Option 1: Google collaborates with stores, makes OAuth authorization, buyers' money still passes through Steam and through Google.

Option 2: Google launches its store, which will be fired with Steam.

Personally, in my opinion, Valve does not want either the first or the second. Cause? Still money. Steam - the leader in the distribution of games. Epic Games Store is certainly trying to fight Steam, but at the moment, the situation is not in favor of EGS. Why should Steam give back some of Google's profit?

Talked about the developers, talked about the distributors. We turn to the manufacturers of game consoles. Or rather, specifically to Sony. Option, again, two. Either Sony starts to cooperate, significantly reducing the number of consoles produced (because people will start switching to Stadia, which means that they will stop buying consoles), they release games for Stadia too. Or there will be no cooperation, and Sony will continue to bend its line. And the owners of Stadia will not be able to play exclusives from Sony. And such people will need to buy a console anyway if they want to play their favorite games from Sony.

Collaboration will lead more to Sony's loss of profits. Would they agree to that? It sounds doubtful, but still possible.

I did not say anything about the console from Microsoft, but in fact the situation is the same. Except for the situation with exclusives, because they still go on the PC.

Now, iron makers. It remains to be seen whether there will be a decline in sales of gaming hardware, because manufacturers are more likely to supply a large amount of equipment to Google. But most likely still lose a little. But it is not accurate .

And finally, users. Yes, probably the only winners in case of success of Stadia. No longer need to think about buying and upgrading iron. No longer need to spend a lot of money on games. After all, a subscription (yet everyone around it says that this is exactly what Stadia will have) will in any case be cheaper than the amount of money a gamer spends on games per year (including the cost of upgrading hardware).

As a result, it turns out that users are happy, and everyone else (except Google) is at a loss. Unless of course Google decides to take all losses on itself. But it is.

I said in advance that we declared a constant - technically, everything is performed at the highest level. Even from the users. In any country. Any resident. But if we retreat from this constant, then technical problems are added to the current number of problems of Stadia. Which is unlikely in the next few years, soon corrected.

What do you think about Stadia?

PS Personally, I myself believe that Stadia will not be able to win the hearts of gamers and make a revolution in the gaming industry in the coming years.

PPS And yes, I am sloppy.

A couple of links:

Google site Stadia
Google Stadia Presentation
Opinion Anton Logvinova