Goolge Stadia twitter account is saying the rumour is false:
Yet on the other hand, if Google really wanted to refute the rumor, they'd say "It's not true, we have a firm roadmap for improvements and expansions etc." And actually have a published roadmap they could point to. Instead they claim they're working on getting new games but from what I can piece together we're about 60% through 2022 and Google has only released 37 of the promised 100+ new games that would come to the platform this year. They could make up some ground but they're not on pace for it.
Google's own track record has me more likely to believe in a complete shut down rather than an extended life cycle.
In my experience roadmap promises are an acknowledgement you’re already borked.
- Stadia signed multimillion deal with EA for Fifa23 and is taking preorders for this game.
- Stadia takes preorders for another game releasing in Autumn.
- Stadia announced expansion to Mexico later this year.
- they are recruiting new staff.
Whatever plans they had aren't going to stop until the decision to kill it is near final, meaning a rumor thay Google is likely to cancel it can be completely consistent with these other activities.
It may even depend on these other activities: if there aren't enough preorders for one of the most popular sports games in the world (Fifa) and if attempts to expand to Mexico fail or at lackluster-- those may be the final criteria google is using to decide on Stadia's future.
Disagree. They could have reacted in different ways:
- a) completely ignoring the rumor.
- b) make a "no-comment" message.
- c) deny the rumor
- d) confirm the rumor
a) and b) may increase the likelihood of the rumor being true. But going for c) is clearly an indication that it's not in their short-term plans.
For large corporations 9-12 months is short term, and 1-2 years not too long to fall into that category either.
Critical points in Stadia's success are coming up in next few months. Pre orders for one of the most popular sports games in the world, releasing 100 games by the end of the year-- a benchmark they're behind on-- and a precarious expansion into Mexico.
These should show results before the end of the year, 5 months from now. If they underperform then I think it's extremely possible that a service cancellation would be announced within 9-12 months.
In the other hand they had no option except C, not really. Anything else would have as good as killed the service anyway. A) or B) would mean updated articles and new headlines would read "Google Won't Deny Rumours of Stadia's Death". B) would be the worst: "Google won't commit to further Stadia Support".
If they might kill it sometimes in the short term of 9-12 months but haven't made a final decision yet then C) was their only option regardless of the truth of any of those. C) conveys the least information (I'd say none) of those options because it does not provide any way to evaluate the truth of the statement unless you take Google at it's word. And yet whether or not we can take them at their word is exactly the thing in question.
Let this comment sink in for a while. An official comment from Stadia "takes nothing away" from an anonymous source with no track record or credibility whatsoever.
>Yet on the other hand, if Google really wanted to refute the rumor
They did something worse - they mocked it and exposed it for the ridiculous rumour it was.
Yeah, let it sink in. Doesn't it say something terrible about Google that their official denial carries no more weight than an anonymous, possibly troll source?
Yes sometimes those with inside knowledge are covering their tracks. NDAs and such.
They don't want to scare their users and confirm that it really is shutting down immediately today, or next week. This account is damage control at its finest and Google will release a statement and then wind all of Stadia down, including that Twitter account in denial. Given that Stadia failed in the pandemic, it already failed in general.
I mean, I did say that this information was given to me from the future [0] so I've already watched this unfold once. Now it is unfolding for the second time for real.