5 ms·

Google reportedly shut down its Stadia studios a week after praising them

36 points by tlogan 6y ago

sunstone 6y ago
Google has gone from an inspiration to an expiration. Man does not live by ads alone.
- metalliqaz 6y ago
  Facebook begs to differ.
Centigonal 6y ago
Doesn't surprise me. Doing a great job and making great progress does not guarantee success or security. A team, program, department, or studio could be doing a great job - but if it no longer aligns with the organization's strategic priorities, it has to go. If you refuse to axe things that don't make strategic sense just because they're doing well, you'll end up with a confused, directionless mass of expensive high performers. Not great for the bottom line.
boh 6y ago
Well at least they tried.
pedalpete 6y ago
Is this a sign that Stadia is going to be shuttered soon? Is the tech still too early? Or are Xbox and PS just so far ahead?
- metalliqaz 6y ago
  The studio was shut down because Stadia isn't making money. Stadia as it exists today will almost certainly shut down this year or next. They may not just stop operations, though. They might transform into some kind of cloud service in a more general capacity.
vagrantJin 6y ago
This is an interesting case of a great team, great idea but no follow through. Question - why does Google want to slap its name on things? Why not just make these things offshoot startups with a little seed money and a lot of shares for said seed money - let it do its thing in the wild and collect a nice cheque if things work out and let it die if things don't workout. One of the reasons the gaming community and tech in general seemed somewhat repulsed by the Google brand and how they treat their products. At this point, everyone is sliently praying Gmail survives whatever internal war Google has when it comes to axing products.
- Centigonal 6y ago
  > Why not just make these things offshoot startups with a little seed money and a lot of shares for said seed mone IMO, this is a great idea. Both SAP and IBM do this with acquisitions that didn't take or internal projects that don't line up with the strategic plan, and it works alright for them: see Qualtrics and Acoustic.co The only theory I have for why Google hasn't done this is because they're run by engineers and not finance guys, and they think managing a reorg like that would hurt their momentum. but that's just a guess. > At this point, everyone is sliently praying Gmail survives whatever internal war Google has when it comes to axing products. I don't think we need to worry too much about this, since Google has monetized GMail through GSuite for businesses, universities, etc.
  - fomine3 6y ago
    Is Niantic Google's case?
    - Centigonal 6y ago
      You're right! I didn't know Niantic started inside Google. And what do you know - it's a successful game studio! We come full circle to Stadia.
DHPersonal 6y ago
My experience, perhaps based on cynicism, is that when a product or company is at risk and the leadership of that product or company makes a statement about the health or longevity of that product or company, one should expect the exact opposite to happen. For example: when a company buys a different company and claims that there will be “no changes to vision or product lines,” I believe that one should expect exactly those things to occur. When a company is having financial difficulties and states that they have “no plans at this time to lay off any of their workforce,” I believe the staff should immediately start updating their résumés, because very shortly a plan to lay off will be revealed. Google Stadia has been a product with an uncertain future for some time. Having Google leadership point out how pleased they are with the team should’ve sent the team to a job board to find something new, because by their statement of support they only confirmed the end was near. But that’s perhaps just my cynicism.

36 points by tlogan 6y ago

sunstone 6y ago

Google has gone from an inspiration to an expiration. Man does not live by ads alone.

metalliqaz 6y ago
Facebook begs to differ.

Centigonal 6y ago

Doesn't surprise me. Doing a great job and making great progress does not guarantee success or security. A team, program, department, or studio could be doing a great job - but if it no longer aligns with the organization's strategic priorities, it has to go. If you refuse to axe things that don't make strategic sense just because they're doing well, you'll end up with a confused, directionless mass of expensive high performers. Not great for the bottom line.

boh 6y ago

Well at least they tried.

pedalpete 6y ago

Is this a sign that Stadia is going to be shuttered soon? Is the tech still too early? Or are Xbox and PS just so far ahead?

metalliqaz 6y ago
The studio was shut down because Stadia isn't making money. Stadia as it exists today will almost certainly shut down this year or next. They may not just stop operations, though. They might transform into some kind of cloud service in a more general capacity.

vagrantJin 6y ago

This is an interesting case of a great team, great idea but no follow through. Question - why does Google want to slap its name on things? Why not just make these things offshoot startups with a little seed money and a lot of shares for said seed money - let it do its thing in the wild and collect a nice cheque if things work out and let it die if things don't workout. One of the reasons the gaming community and tech in general seemed somewhat repulsed by the Google brand and how they treat their products. At this point, everyone is sliently praying Gmail survives whatever internal war Google has when it comes to axing products.

Centigonal 6y ago
> Why not just make these things offshoot startups with a little seed money and a lot of shares for said seed mone IMO, this is a great idea. Both SAP and IBM do this with acquisitions that didn't take or internal projects that don't line up with the strategic plan, and it works alright for them: see Qualtrics and Acoustic.co The only theory I have for why Google hasn't done this is because they're run by engineers and not finance guys, and they think managing a reorg like that would hurt their momentum. but that's just a guess. > At this point, everyone is sliently praying Gmail survives whatever internal war Google has when it comes to axing products. I don't think we need to worry too much about this, since Google has monetized GMail through GSuite for businesses, universities, etc.
- fomine3 6y ago
  Is Niantic Google's case?
  - Centigonal 6y ago
    You're right! I didn't know Niantic started inside Google. And what do you know - it's a successful game studio! We come full circle to Stadia.

DHPersonal 6y ago

My experience, perhaps based on cynicism, is that when a product or company is at risk and the leadership of that product or company makes a statement about the health or longevity of that product or company, one should expect the exact opposite to happen. For example: when a company buys a different company and claims that there will be “no changes to vision or product lines,” I believe that one should expect exactly those things to occur. When a company is having financial difficulties and states that they have “no plans at this time to lay off any of their workforce,” I believe the staff should immediately start updating their résumés, because very shortly a plan to lay off will be revealed. Google Stadia has been a product with an uncertain future for some time. Having Google leadership point out how pleased they are with the team should’ve sent the team to a job board to find something new, because by their statement of support they only confirmed the end was near. But that’s perhaps just my cynicism.