Stadia, the leader of the cloud gaming platform, has come to
the end of its shutdown after repeated trial and error operations.
On September 29, Google announced that it will shut down
Stadia servers on January 18, 2023. Until then, players will still be able to
play games in the Stadia library through online servers. At the same time, if
players have previously purchased software and hardware supporting the Stadia
platform, they can also apply for a refund from the platform. However, the
subscription service Stadia Pro on the platform does not support refund
services.
"While Stadia's streaming game for consumers is
built on a strong technical foundation, it hasn't been as engaging as we
expected , so we made the difficult decision to start shutting down the Stadia
streaming service." at Google In the official blog The Keyword, Stadia
vice president and general manager Phil Harrison posted on the same day.
Looking back at the previous development of Stadia, it
has only been 3 years since its establishment. The platform service was first
made public by Google at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) held in 2019. In
addition to the Stadia platform, Google also established the Stadia games and
entertainment division in March of the same year, headed by former Ubisoft
Toronto CEO Jade Raymond.
However, Stadia's downsizing also came quickly. After
repeatedly hitting the wall in terms of platform operations and game
self-research, Google closed the Stadia game and entertainment division on
February 1, 2021. In March, Stadia was downgraded again by business. At the
Google Game Developers Summit on March 15, Google announced that it would
define Stadia's technology as "immersive game streaming" and sell
Stadia as part of its Google Cloud business.
It is worth noting that at the Code Conference held in
early September, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that he hopes to improve the
company's operational efficiency by 20%. Shutting down the Stadia business may
be the first step for Google to “reduce costs and increase efficiency”.
In fact, the problems faced by Stadia also exist in other
cloud gaming platforms of the same type.
A game industry insider with coordinates in Beijing told
21 reporters that the shortage of IDC (Internet Data Center) resources and the
high bandwidth requirements of cloud games have resulted in the delay of cloud
gaming platforms in the current market .
"The peak bit rate of 4K video content requires
about 4 to 5 GB of data per hour, but if it is cloud game content of the same
quality, it may require more than 10 GB of data." Analysys Interactive
Entertainment Culture Consumer Industry Center Analyst Ma Axin gave an example
to reporters Describes the data volume required by cloud games.
Ma Axin further pointed out that the three items of
operation and maintenance cost, business model and user experience are still
the contradictions that are difficult to reconcile in the cloud game platform .
"Edge computing technology is used for the industrial Internet rather than
the content Internet, which means that edge computing does not help cloud
games." He said.
It is worth noting that although the Stadia platform is
about to be shut down, its underlying technology is still the focus of Google's
toB business layout.
Phil Harrison pointed out that the underlying technology
platform that powers Stadia has been market-proven at scale, "We see
opportunities to apply this technology to other Google businesses such as
YouTube, Google Play, and augmented reality (AR), and plan to Make it available
to our industry partners. We remain firmly committed to gaming and will
continue to invest in new tools, technologies and platforms to fuel the success
of developers, industry partners, cloud customers and creators."
Referring to the future development of cloud game
technology, Ma Axin believes that the application scenarios of cloud games will
become more and more diversified, and cloud real-time rendering and enhancing
the gameplay of products will be the main development directions in the future
. "For example, in marketing scenarios, consumers can access live
broadcasts as players to further increase their sense of participation. When
entering cloud-native games, many domestic companies have also begun to develop
cloud rendering technology and set up related platforms, which will also
provide In the future, the resource and manpower aggregation of the game
industry provides a direction."
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