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Google Stadia has struggled through a multitude of problems since its arrival in 2019. From the lack of features on launch day and the loss of internal studios to several missed milestones, problems have cropped up at every turn. Google would have a new strategy for Stadia. It would be renamed Google Stream and pivot to securing white label deals.
The report comes from Business Internwho claims Google is about to abandon its attempts to turn Stadia into a gaming platform. Instead, 80% of its staff will focus on acquiring white label partnerships. This means using Google Stream technology to power third-party apps.
Google has yet to confirm the report. We have already seen the fruits of his licensing labor. Last year saw the arrival of a free-to-play browser game, Batman: Arkham Knight, which was built around the Google Stadia framework. This success led Google to seek deals with Peloton, Bungie and Capcomand more will likely follow if these projects go as planned.
The future of Google Stadia
The majority of employees work on the white label operation of Google Stream. But there’s still a fraction of its workforce dedicated to keeping Google Stadia alive as we know it now. Clearly, the consumer-facing platform is no longer a priority for the company. There are fewer games coming to the service than we’ve seen in the past. It also begs the question: what happens to your games if Google Stadia shuts down?
An old Reddit thread from three years ago offers some answers. The official Stadia account has gone live to answer some burning questions.
“The games you buy on Stadia are yours.” says Stadia. “From day one, we’ll support Takeout, so you can download your game’s metadata, including saves if you want.”
However, the community was quick to point out the careful wording of the answer, noting the use of “your to cheekinstead of “yours to dungeon.” Follow-up responses were rare in subsequent years. It’s still unclear what will happen to your library if Stadia disappears. The best scenario would be a transfer to another platform. The worst case scenario would be deleting your entire library.
For now, we recommend playing it safe and opting for another streaming service. There’s no shortage of options in today’s market, and many of them are showing less signs of wear than Google’s ambitious Stadia.
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