Google's Stadia Pivots To Being Some White Label Game Streaming Platform For Others To Use

from the maybe-they-can-make-it-good dept

The saga of Google's Stadia product has been long, winding, and mostly disappointing. The initial launch of Google's platform, billed as a Netflix-style video game streaming service, was underwhelming and plagued with Obamacare-like rollout issues, failed promises, underperforming adoption rates, and a paltry catalogue of games on the platform. Other than that, the launch of Stadia went off without a hitch.

But the problems continued. The in-house development studio Google setup to make games for Stadia was nixxed without ever having produced a single game, support for the platform suddenly became a non-thing due to staffing cuts, and more Stadia staff headed for greener pastures.

With all of that, you might think that Stadia has been destined for a grave next to Google Plus. And maybe that's still the case, but it seems Google is going to take the long way to get there if it is, as the company has made some vague noises about Stadia no longer being a platform for gamers to stream games on directly, but rather a platform for other companies to try to make, you know, actually successful.

Rather than continuing to push Stadia as a consumer-facing, branded service, Google seems to want to pivot the service to what would essentially be "Google Cloud Gaming Platform." This would be a back-end, white-label service that could power other companies' products, just like a million other Google Cloud products, like database hosting and push messaging. Google said it believes a back-end service "is the best path to building Stadia into a long-term, sustainable business."

Or they could have... you know... fixed it. But, frankly, a white-label platform as described above is more Google's traditional speed. Still, there are obvious questions about all of this. If other companies can make Stadia work as a game streaming service, why couldn't Google itself? Is this really just a function of Google's inability to properly partner with game publishers to make this all work, or is the issue the underlying technology itself? This really is all going to work like a VoIP provider layering a useful platform on top of GCP?

We're apparently going to get some answers to that thanks to -- wait for it -- AT&T.

This all brings us to this Batman game presented by AT&T Wireless. The site notes that "for the first time ever," you can now play the 2015 game Batman: Arkham Knight with "beta streaming on your computer. No downloads or waiting." AT&T's game-streaming service requires a Chrome-based browser and sounds a whole lot like Google Stadia. This is the same thought 9to5Google had when it investigated the game and found hints that it connects to Google's services and mentions of Stadia's "cloudcast" codename.

AT&T later confirmed that, yes, it is using Stadia to power this streamed game. Streaming the game requires an AT&T wireless account, which itself raises all kinds of questions. What does any of this have to do with mobile wireless? Will AT&T game streaming, using Google's Stadia, be exempted from AT&T's data caps (hat tip Karl Bode)? Why is Google setting up a situation where actual paying Stadia customers can't play this Batman game... but AT&T subscribers can?

Regardless, it appears that the future of Stadia, if there is one, is far from the public facing, direct to customer game streaming service it was announced to be. Instead, it will be some invisible background platform, more akin to a game engine than anything remotely resembling Netflix.

Filed Under: stadia, streaming, video game streaming, video games
Companies: google

Netflix's Announced 'Video Game Streaming' Foray Fizzles Into Some Mobile Games Using Netflix IP

from the more-like-a-trickle-than-a-stream dept

You may recall that my colleague Karl Bode discussed Netflix's response to real competition last month, dealing mostly with how Netflix has attempted to hand-waive concerns over losing subscribers in the face of increasing streaming options from the likes of Amazon, Disney, and Comcast. But buried down in the last paragraph was a reference to Netflix's reported interest in video game streaming. Reports indicated that Netflix had hired an executive that had previously worked for EA, speculating that the company was getting into game publishing. There was no official word from Netflix as to what this game studio would actually look like, and the speculation was roughly what you would expect.

While Netflix has not yet confirmed what shape its video game publishing arm might take, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman has suggested that the effort could lead to "video games [as part of] its service in the next year." The use of "video games" as a descriptor is key, as that differentiates the effort from the "choose your own adventure" TV specials that have become more common on the service since Black Mirror's "Bandersnatch" special debuted in 2018.

A tantalizing thought, to be sure. Would Netflix, the company that largely changed the way the public consumes television and movie content, jump into video game streaming in some way to compete with Amazon, Google Prime, and the like? Given the lackluster adoption of such video game streaming services, and given Netflix's reputation for redefining content via streamed services, such speculation certainly made sense.

But, no, Netflix is not getting into that sort of video game streaming service. Instead, the studio will build mobile gaming apps available to Netflix subscribers, chiefly utilizing Netflix intellectual property.

One month after its vague announcement of a new gaming-centric strategy, Netflix has explained how it will "publish" video games in the foreseeable future: as downloadable smartphone apps, available exclusively for paying video-streaming subscribers.

The news coincides with the company's public launch of Netflix Gaming on Thursday as part of the service's smartphone app... but only in Poland—and only on Android. The company's American Twitter translated Thursday's Polish announcement, which explains how the service works. It also announced the two games launching as part of the service today: Stranger Things 3, a 16-bit beat-'em-up that was previously available as a standalone Google Play purchase (and is still live on PC and consoles); and Stranger Things: 1984, a rebranding of a 2017 smartphone-exclusive game that revolve around slow, puzzle-solving movement through pixelated TV-series environments.

Yawn. The more detailed announcement is honestly underwhelming. On top of that, the way Netflix is attempting to silo this new gaming content behind the Netflix app for subscribers sounds like an absolute user experience nightmare.

To access this content, you'll need to log in to Netflix's Android app while using a Polish IP address, then open the region's new "N Gaming" row of icons (pictured below). From there, pick either of those games, and the app will direct you to their Google Play download listings. Once downloaded, the apps in question will request your Netflix credentials before loading, and they will not work without an active Netflix membership.

The Polish IP part of this equation is a function of this all being in beta, so we'll leave that aside. But accessing the Google Play store by first navigating a complicated menu in the Netflix app... only to then have to re-input your user name and password for Netflix into the game application? Come on now, this isn't the efficient user experience Netflix made its name on.

And I'm also terribly confused why Netflix would even want to restrict selling its games only to Netflix subscribers. Why not sell to, you know, everyone? This reeks of console exclusivity, where gaming console companies strike deals with developers to only appear on their consoles as a way to drive more console sales. Is Netflix's strategy really to use these mobile games to drive more people to subscribe or stay subscribed to its main offering?

If so, it's a terribly weak move, and unlikely to work. Maybe the game catalogue will grow, but I can't imagine anyone considering unsubscribing to Netflix changing their minds simply to play a Stranger Things mobile game.

Filed Under: streaming, video game streaming, video games
Companies: netflix

Google Jumps Into The Game Revenue Split Wars With Stadia

from the splitsville dept

It's no secret that the launch of Google's video game streaming platform Stadia has not exactly been smooth. From access issues to performance problems, up to and including a low adoption rate and stunted catalogue of games, this appeared for all the world to be Google's video game equivalent of Google Plus. In other words, one of those projects Google launches half way and then abandons. Part of the issue with the catalogue was reports that Google wasn't going to be shelling out cash to bring in more games to the platform last year.

But perhaps that is going to change. And perhaps the rumors of Stadia's forthcoming death have been greatly exaggerated. Reports now indicate that Google is going to try to attract more publishers to the platform by engaging in the same revenue-split wars currently going on between Steam, Epic, and Microsoft.

As part of a Stadia keynote presentation today, Google announced several moves designed to attract more games and publishers to its streaming gaming service. Chief among these is a more generous revenue split for publishers on the platform. Starting in October, Google will only take a 15 percent cut of the first $3 million in revenue for each new game on Stadia.

Assuming the industry-standard 30 percent cut, that means publishers stand to make up to $450,000 more per game before Google's cut reverts back to the standard at the $3 million threshold (a Google representative told Ars that "Stadia currently provides competitive revenue share terms with partners that matches what they typically see from other industry platforms"). The more generous deal only applies to "newly signed games" on Stadia from October through the end of 2023, though, meaning publishers that got in on Stadia early will miss out on the increase for their legacy titles.

As noted, this program is specifically designed to attract new game titles to Stadia. It's also worth noting that the "industry-standard 30%" platform cut isn't necessarily the industry standard any longer, unless you only consider Steam as the standard. And that would be dumb. There is emerging competition in the gaming storefront space... finally.

But, for Stadia, this is less about trying to carve out more market share and more about carving out any market share. Stadia only has 195 games on its platform. And while that might sound like a healthy amount, it's really not. Not when you consider the thousands of games available on Steam and Epic, or even the hundreds of games you can buy for last-generation consoles. Yes, streaming is different and not all games will be good candidates for the streaming platform. But streaming services become attractive largely by volume of offering. Imagine Netflix never getting past 200 television shows and movies. It wouldn't work.

Stadia is also trying to lure more games onto the platform with other revenue-makers as well.

Google will also more directly be giving publishers a cut of the proceeds from the games Stadia offers as freebies through its $10/month Stadia Pro subscription. A full 70 percent of Stadia Pro revenue will now be shared with the publishers of "any new title that enters into Stadia Pro" starting this month. That revenue will be divided up among publishers based on the number of "session days" (i.e., daily active users per day) logged on each title among all Stadia Pro users.

Finally, Google says that it will be rolling out a new Affiliate Marketing Program to increase the value of the "Click to Play" links that Stadia developers and publishers can create. Starting sometime in early 2022, if a player signs up for Stadia Pro using one of those instant-play links, the developer or publisher behind the link will receive the first $10 monthly payment made on the subscription (after a one-month free trial).

All of which is to denote that it looks like Google isn't ready to give up on Stadia yet. But getting more games on Stadia is just the first step. Even if that's successful, Google then has to gain more customer adoption. That's going to take time and investment over the mid- to long-term.

And after the rocky start, we'll get to find out together whether more games will be enough to get the bad Stadia taste out of the public's mouth.

Filed Under: revenue split, stadia, video game streaming, video games
Companies: google