Google’s streaming service, Stadia, could potentially change the industry in major ways. Not only is it the first streaming-only service from a huge company, it’s also something that can, potentially, deliver console-like experiences without the need for that hardware. It’s exciting, it’s doubtful, and it’s kind of scary all at once. But how do those on the ground, the game developers, feel about it? Well, some of the indie developers under the EA Originals banner seem pretty excited, but also realistic, about the whole thing.
In an interview with DualShockers, Karthik Bala of Velan Studios and Jonny Hopper from Glowmade shared a lot of thoughts on Stadia. Velan’s currently working on an unannounced multiplayer game and Hopper is working on a game called RustHeart. For the most part, they seem positive, but also realistic. Valen says that it will take a while for developers and consumers to wrap their head around it.
“I think that it’s going to be another platform initially,” said Valen. “I think that just like any other platform, if you are developing directly for it and you really understand the strengths of it, it may take a couple of iterations. My guess is, much like every other console and every other platform, it is going to take developers one or two cycles for developers in general to understand what is unique about it.”
Hopper pulls back even more more, comparing Stadia to movie subscription services, and thinks those who expect it to completely alter or replace the traditional console and PC experience are thinking far too ahead.
“Steaming services don’t mean the death of PC games, it’s not the death of console games,” said Hopper. “Just like subscription and paid games, they don’t cannibalize each other, it’s just more people who are going to play the game in a different way and I think that is the really important thing. You make a narrative game for whatever platform it is still the same game, other people are going to play it.”
Stadia definitely has a lot of potential, but there’s also a lot of challenges that it faces. We can really only wait and see when Stadia launches this November. For details on that, check here.