2019’s Dumpster Fire Moment – Google Stadia

Shannon: It turns out not everywhere in the country has gigabit fiber. IF ONLY THERE WAS A LARGE INTERNET COMPANY THAT AT ONE POINT WAS ROLLING OUT FIBER EVERYWHERE, THAT SEEMS LIKE IT WOULD’VE BEEN BENEFICIAL. What I love about this is that this has been tried before so many times, from OnLive to Gaikai. It has been tried for OVER 10 YEARS and it NEVER EVER WORKS because OUR INTERNET IN AMERICA IS SHIT. This is not even a hard business problem to research. But as a wise man once said, some companies are always trying to ice skate uphill. 

Nick: It went from unknown to game service to “You buy games and they nebulously exist,” so fast that I had my pre-order cancelled before they even finished explaining what the damn thing was. Google Stadia is a one-step forward, two-steps back scenario. Cloud gaming could be a great way to offload processing power from consoles but instead, Stadia just creates more pitfalls in game ownership and does so at the cost of requiring higher-speed internet than a lot of people have access to.

Diego: It’s genuinely amazing how Google, the one company who should have been the ones to finally deliver on this concept, completely fucked this up. The insane part is they knew the current internet landscape in the US wasn’t ready for this, yet trudged forward with neanderthal-like determination. Everything about this service is so poorly executed to a mind-boggling degree. On top of all this are all the people who bought into an ecosystem that’s going to be abandoned by Google in a few months once Google gets bored of it.

Will: I saw the first public reveal of Google Stadia at GDC in San Francisco, a city that evangelizes tech and innovation but often tone-deaf to the actual marketplace and practical, everyday use. Who was the target person and why would they even play this? It’s no surprise that Google Stadia launched to the response it did, a wet and squeaky fart.