So why exactly is Stadia – a major platform launched pushed by Google of all the companies in the world – floundering so badly? The answer may surprise you if, like, you haven’t been paying any attention to the news about this platform whatsoever. But a new piece from Business Insider looks at one of the underdiscussed avenues in which the Stadia is underperforming, specifically its anemic game library. Why aren’t there more games on there? According to several indie developers it’s the simple reality that Google isn’t giving anyone a reason to launch on the platform.
Developers, especially smaller developers, are enticed to platforms either via financial incentives or the security of ongoing publishing and exclusivity deals. Stadia, meanwhile, has offered basically no incentives, and for most developers there doesn’t seem to be any sort of assurance that Google will still be supporting Stadia in a year or two years or whatever. Thus, there’s very little incentive to launch on the platform, which means there’s less reason for players to buy in, and it all becomes a vicious and self-created cycle. You know, aside from all of the other problems.
