WhenStadiafirst kicked off in 2018 as a beta, the service garnered a lot of excitement from gamers over the potential of a large-scale cloud gaming platform. Although not a renowned name in the gaming sector, the idea showed a lot of promise, particularly considering Google’s experience and expertise in cloud computing infrastructure. Unfortunately, this promise only seemed to last for a few years as the tech giant announced the shutdown ofStadiain September 2022. Now, as Microsoft forms long-term partnerships with gaming companies to expand its own offering, Stadia’s closure might come as a bit premature.
Over the past few months, the Xbox maker has been making an active effort to gain support from the industry over its pending $69.7 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition. Within a month,Microsoft signed 10-year deals with Nvidia, Boosteroid, Ubitus, and Nintendo that would take effect after the completion of the Activision purchase. Microsoft even offered a similar agreement to its rival Sony, though the company has since rejected the deal claiming that the arrangement would cause significant harm to the competition. Either way, it’s a clear indication that Microsoft is keen on building more partnerships with big players within the tech industry as it attempts to win the regulators' favor over the Activision deal. So, it wouldn’t be far off to imagine a scenario where Microsoft would have signed a 10-year agreement with Stadia as well had Google not shut down the service.
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The Push for Cloud Gaming and Microsoft’s 10-Year Deals
Despite its short lifespan, Stadia offered a glimpse into the industry’s potential future in cloud gaming, and the fact that such a platform came from a dominant cloud computing company made an intriguing case. In fact, Google’s investment in this space was reportedly what pushedMicrosoft to explore cloud gamingduring the same period via its own xCloud and Game Pass services. This inadvertently meant that other tech companies also looked to cloud gaming ranging from Netflix to Sony. Now, with the increasing scrutiny over the Activision purchase, regulators like the CMA even raise concerns over Microsoft’s potential to dominate cloud gaming. The growing interest in this area is another sign that the Stadia shutdown may have been a mistimed move.
Of course, that’s not to say Stadia wasn’t without its issues. The platform was stifled by its lack of games in the library early on, along with the growing competition from other stakeholders in the industry. This translated toGoogle opting to shut down Stadia game development studiosback in 2021 and proceeded by closing the Stadia arm itself two years later. Given Microsoft’s current attempts at bringing its slate of Xbox PC games and Activision titles to other cloud gaming platforms, it would be interesting to see how a potential Xbox - Stadia partnership would have turned out. Google’s cloud gaming platform would have potentially stood to gain a massive boost both in terms of its library offering and adoption thanks to franchises likeCall of DutyandOverwatch.
It’s worth noting that the company hasn’t completely cut off from its involvement in cloud gaming. As of now,Google is working with publishers on upcoming cloud gaming projectsby offering infrastructural support via its Google Cloud division. The company’s current list of partners includes Nvidia, Square Enix, Activision Blizzard, Sega, and a host of others. Google closing shop onStadiaearly seems like its biggest lost gaming opportunity in the context of the present events surrounding the Activision deal, as Microsoft could have been a huge partner for the platform if it was still around. Only time will tell how much this lost opportunity is going to impact Google.
