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Developers and publishers are avoiding Stadia because Google isn't offering a big enough incentive

A lack of money and industry commitment

Developers and publishers are avoiding Stadia because Google isn't offering a big enough incentive

A new article has taken a look at why some developers and publishers don't want to be on Google's Stadia streaming platform. 

Business Insider has spoken to various professionals on their decision to avoid the platform. The main reasons proved to be a lack of money and little belief in Google's commitment to the games industry.

Indie titles are a massive part of the industry - Steam, consoles and other storefronts are packed with them. Stadia, however, has lacked in that department.

"We were approached by the Stadia team," said one indie developer.

"Usually, with that kind of thing, they lead with some kind of offer that would give you an incentive to go with them."

However, they felt that the incentive "was kind of non-existent. That's the short of it."

A publishing executive claimed, "It's that there isn't enough money there." They further explained that the offer to join Stadia was "so low that it wasn't even part of the conversation."

Commitment issues

Another developer went on to speak about the importance of reaching a broad audience. Something that the streaming platform lacks - for now at least.

"There are platforms you want to be on because they have an audience and you want to reach that audience," said the developer.

"That's what Steam is, or that's what Nintendo Switch is. They have big groups on their platforms, and you want to be with those groups so they can play your games."

A further developer added: "If you could see yourself getting into a long term relationship with Google? But with Google's history, I don't even know if they're working on Stadia in a year. That wouldn't be something crazy that Google does. It's within their track record."

Lack of trust

A publishing executive shared the developer's sentiments when it comes to the tech giants' commitment.

"With Google, it's easy to look at them as, well - it's Google. If anyone's gonna make it work, it's them. But they've failed a ton in the past and walked away from major services," said the publisher.

Stadia representative Patrick Seybold claimed that the publishers and developers the company works with are supportive. He used big companies such as EA, Bethesda and Ubisoft. However, these companies are rarely responsible for indie hits.

"The publishers and developers we speak with regularly are very supportive and want Stadia to succeed. It is also worth pointing out that not every publisher has announced their games for Stadia so far, and more games will continue to be announced in due course," Seybold.

Google launched its Stadia platform in November 2019. In January, it was revealed that mobile downloads for Stadia have halved since its launch. Last November, the app had been installed 175,000 times.

This story was originally published on PCGamesInsider.biz.


Staff Writer

Kayleigh is the Staff Writer for PocketGamer.biz. Besides PGbiz and PCGI she has written as a list writer for Game Rant, rambling about any and all things games related. You can also find her on Twitter talking utter nonsense.