san francisco At the world’s largest computer games fair Gamescom in Cologne in 2019, an upheaval in the global industry was to be initiated. The best games should no longer be powered by game consoles or powerful computers, but instead by the cloud, which should bring them to every end device in the best quality: television, smartphone or computer.
Three years later, the plans failed. Google announced the end of its Stadia cloud gaming service on Thursday. Deutsche Telekom, which also announced its games service Magenta Gaming in Cologne in 2019, announced the end of the offer in January.
The idea was convincing: companies like Google in particular have a great deal of expertise in the operation of powerful server systems. Why shouldn’t they use this knowledge for computer games. The two big US cloud rivals, Microsoft and Amazon, also launched game services from the cloud. The market is lucrative because the gaming industry is significantly larger than the global film industry.
Then the industry also benefited from a special situation: the corona pandemic forced millions of people into their homes. And Sony barely managed to ship its Playstation 5 because the pandemic had disrupted supply chains.
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Google in particular did not know how to take advantage of this favorable location. Worse still, only about a year after the launch of Stadia, Google announced that it would close its own gaming studio. Stadia should only serve as a platform for third parties. But if even Google didn’t want to invest in its own platform, why should anyone else do it?
Business was similarly difficult for Telekom. Magenta Gaming should show what fast internet access from the German industry leader is capable of. But the offer suffered from technological weaknesses. Users complained about numerous problems. The team responsible received little resources and support, those involved told the Handelsblatt.
Google Stadia and Magenta Gaming will soon join the many promising products that will be buried early. The failure is not because cloud gaming doesn’t work, but because companies lack courage. Other companies have recognized this weakness and are using the gap left by Google and Telekom. The chip company Nvidia, for example, has launched its own gaming platform.
More: Gaming is the new streaming: Sony’s billion dollar deal fuels the battle for the screen.