3 ms·

What are the business reasons? Surely the web is just a platform for delivery? Payment etc can happen through the browser.

flohofwoe 5y ago
I agree, but tell that to the "money people" in big game studios ;) The web simply isn't on their radar, even mobile isn't for the most part. They want strong centralized platforms like Steam, EGS, Xbox, Playstation or Nintendo and a platform owner to negotiate with. This can change very quickly if there's actually some breakthrough web game, but that hasn't happened so far, and nobody wants to be the first to take the risk.
- coretx 5y ago
  Both Unreal Engine and Unity already have Google Stadia for a compile target ( Debian/vulkan )and it runs in the browser. As consoles have become more and more generic and all carry a browser, less money is being invested in platform specific engines because there is less relative performance increase & return on investment compared to the past. ( Games sold the platform, not the other way round ) Risks have been taken by big players and everything is becoming more and more platform agnostic therefore we could reasonable expect "breakthrough" when they are done milking the cow previously invested in and see them expand to a bigger market.
  - flohofwoe 5y ago
    > ...and it runs in the browser That's not correct though, the game runs on a Linux box in Google's datacenters (granted, from a business perspective that's nitpicking - but not quite, see below, but it's a massive difference from a technical perspective). Scaling to large audiences is much more expensive with the game streaming approach though (but we'll never really know because Stadia bombed, just as all other game streaming platforms before).
    - coretx 5y ago
      It's not just a remote control video feed ( Unlike other game streaming platforms ) so there is tons of incentives and capability for them to offload as much as possible onto the client.

flohofwoe 5y ago

I agree, but tell that to the "money people" in big game studios ;) The web simply isn't on their radar, even mobile isn't for the most part. They want strong centralized platforms like Steam, EGS, Xbox, Playstation or Nintendo and a platform owner to negotiate with. This can change very quickly if there's actually some breakthrough web game, but that hasn't happened so far, and nobody wants to be the first to take the risk.

coretx 5y ago
Both Unreal Engine and Unity already have Google Stadia for a compile target ( Debian/vulkan )and it runs in the browser. As consoles have become more and more generic and all carry a browser, less money is being invested in platform specific engines because there is less relative performance increase & return on investment compared to the past. ( Games sold the platform, not the other way round ) Risks have been taken by big players and everything is becoming more and more platform agnostic therefore we could reasonable expect "breakthrough" when they are done milking the cow previously invested in and see them expand to a bigger market.
- flohofwoe 5y ago
  > ...and it runs in the browser That's not correct though, the game runs on a Linux box in Google's datacenters (granted, from a business perspective that's nitpicking - but not quite, see below, but it's a massive difference from a technical perspective). Scaling to large audiences is much more expensive with the game streaming approach though (but we'll never really know because Stadia bombed, just as all other game streaming platforms before).
  - coretx 5y ago
    It's not just a remote control video feed ( Unlike other game streaming platforms ) so there is tons of incentives and capability for them to offload as much as possible onto the client.