Stadia

Report: Stadia deprioritized as white-label ‘Google Stream’ aims for Bungie, Capcom deals

Abner Li | Feb 4 2022 - 8:52 am PT

Stadia’s future as a white-label streaming platform has been clear for some months now, especially after the first partnership with AT&T. A new report provides more details into the current state of Stadia and the new “Google Stream” focus.

According to Business Insider, the white-label effort goes by the name “Google Stream” in a throwback to the original beta test. Before the Sony acquisition, Google was in discussion with Bungie to offer the platform wherein the Destiny maker would “own the content and control the front-end experience.” It’s unclear how the upcoming $3.6 billion purchase impacts that as Sony has an existing streaming tech deal with Microsoft. There have also been talks with Capcom for Google Stream to run game demos similar to the AT&T arrangement for Batman: Arkham Knight.

Outside of traditional gaming companies, Google is also talking to Peleton to have Stadia’s technology power titles on fitness bikes. One such game entered a closed demo late last year.

Meanwhile, today’s report sheds some light on the state of the consumer platform. Current and former employees estimated that “about 20% of the focus was on the consumer platform” in light of dealmaking and “proof-of-concept work for Google Stream.”

In terms of games, the focus is on making sure end users continue to get them from existing publishing and other independent deals all of which will be cheaper than big titles, while spending for “exclusives would be out of the question.”

Similarly, Stadia head Phil Harrison no longer reports to Devices & Services SVP Rick Osterloh, but rather the executive in charge of subscriptions.

Lastly, BI reports that at the end of 2020, Google had failed to reach its 1 million monthly active users target by “about 25%,” with one person quoted as saying that “Retention was a real problem.” It’s unclear if this is referring to Stadia Pro or whether it also includes people who bought games outright.

In a statement, Google did nothing to really refute the article today and pointed to how it is “still focused on bringing great games to Stadia in 2022,” specifically over 100 titles are again targeted.