Stadia: no, Google is not letting the service die

Google would no longer be the center of Google’s attention, the American giant being too busy with its new ambition: to offer its technology as a white label. But is this really bad news for the service? We will explain everything to you.

Last week, a Business Insider report stated that Stadia was no longer Google’s priority. The Californian giant would hope to make other companies benefit from its streaming technology thanks to a white label called “Google Stream”. Within the Google team working on Stadia, only 20% of employees take care of the platform and the communitywhile 80% would be focused on white label development.

The report also mentioned that with this change in strategy, Phil Harrison, who runs Stadia, was now reporting to Google’s head of subscriptions. In addition, Jack Buser, the former director of games for Stadia, would now be part of Google’s “cloud” division. Google was nevertheless reassuring about it on social media, announcing that “ the Stadia team is working hard to secure the future of Stadia and cloud gaming “.

What is Google Stream White Label?

For those unaware, white-labeling Stadia’s technology would allow other companies to use Stadia’s infrastructure, and therefore to remunerate Google, to offer games in cloud gaming, but without affixing the Stadia label. The first Google partner to take advantage of this white label was the American operator AT&T.

Indeed, the latter offers its subscribers to play Batman: Arkham Knight for free directly from their Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browser on PC, thanks to Google’s infrastructure. Today, other companies like Peleton, Capcom and Bungie are said to be in the running to partner with the American giant.

As a reminder, Bungie was also recently acquired by Sony for 3.2 billion euros, so it is not known whether or not this acquisition would call into question a potential agreement with Google. We imagine, however, that Google and Bungie are still very linked because of Destiny 2. The game had been strongly promoted when the platform was launched, and has been a real hit with Stadia players.

Rather than striving for more exclusives or AAA games on Stadia, Google would rather encourage other companies to use its Google Stream white label. It is therefore likely that most of the games available over the next few years on Stadia will be indie or older titles.

Stadia is not going to die, Google promises more than 100 new games in 2022

Contrary to what many Internet users who would be delighted to see Google close a new service, this will not be the case for Stadia. Indeed, Google has been very reassuring about the future of its cloud gaming platform. According to Google, the service will host more than 100 new games in 2022.

Google also recalled that the platform now has more than 200 titles, and that 50 games are currently available for Stadia Pro subscribers. In February 2022, Stadia offered 5 new games to its subscribers, including the famous Life Is Strange. In addition, we know that Stadia has recently registered its trademark in new countries such as Mexico or Brazil, which indicates that the service will soon welcome a large number of new users. Google is also reportedly planning to roll out its service in Asia over the next few years.

Finally, we know that the next flagship game from Ubisoft, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, will be available on Stadia. This is not just any game, since the technical director of the title has already confirmed that all versions will feature Ray Tracing technology. So this indicates that Google will soon update the hardware configuration of its servers with even more powerful graphics cards.

In addition to launching Stadia in new countries and filling the game library, Google is also forging new partnerships with brands like Samsung, since Stadia will be natively available on the Korean manufacturer’s televisions in 2022. The application will be part of a “Gaming Hub”, in which we will also find other services such as GeForce Now.