Come January, Google might be shutting down its Stadia cloud gaming service. In some methods, the transfer isn’t a lot of a shock — as my colleagues have identified, there’s been doubt about whether or not Google was in it for the lengthy haul with Stadia mainly ever because it was introduced in March 2019.

If you’ve been listening to what the corporate stated concerning the service, although, you’d be forgiven for being blindsided. Up till the very finish, Google insisted there’s an exquisite future for Stadia, and that gamers ought to maintain signing up for and utilizing the service, regardless of rumors that it was about to go bust. Now that Stadia’s formally being shut down, let’s check out the occasions Google promised us this wouldn’t occur.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Jade Raymond, who on the time was Google’s head of Stadia Games & Entertainment, stated that the corporate was taking “a long term view” with Stadia, noting that it might take a number of years to provide you with “a huge new IP that’s going to fully leverage the cloud.” She did, nonetheless, promise that “it won’t be four years before gamers get to see the new exclusive, exciting content. There will be some coming out every year, and more and more each year.”

Surely, if the corporate was keen to confess this, that meant it understood that getting cloud gaming off the bottom could be a long-term dedication, proper? Spoiler: Raymond would depart Google simply over a 12 months later when it shut down Stadia Games & Entertainment.

Other studios working with Google appeared to consider the corporate was in it for the lengthy haul. Gwen Frey, the developer of Google Stadia launch title Kine, told GamesIndustry.biz in November: “I don’t even think they want to have a super-strong launch. I get the sense that they want to scale slowly and see where this goes.”

Frey did, nonetheless, discuss how others within the trade have been frightened about Stadia going away. “The biggest complaint most developers have with Stadia is the fear is Google is just going to cancel it,” she stated. She didn’t actually appear to share that concern, although; “working in tech, you have to be willing to make bold moves and try things that could fail,” she stated. “It’s not like Google cancels every fucking thing they make.”

In an interview with MobileSyrup, Stadia’s former director of video games Jack Buser (you would possibly sense a sample right here) stated that Google had a “roadmap of about 400 games in development right now from 200 developers.” When speaking about how the corporate was planning its launch schedule, he stated: “we’re thinking about 2022 right now — that’s our focus. 2023 is really kind of where we’re aiming our sights.”

He then continued to say that Google was “unequivocally” in it for the lengthy haul, and that it was wanting “many years out into the future.” Honestly, I like to recommend taking a couple of minutes to simply go learn all the interview. It’s attention-grabbing however just a little unhappy on reflection.

Things have been wanting fairly grim for Stadia as a cloud gaming service in early 2021; Google had simply shut down its in-house sport studios, and its announcement actually made it look like Google was going to give attention to Stadia as a white-label service for corporations, moderately than attempting to make it higher for players.

Despite that, the corporate insisted that it could “remain committed to Stadia as a platform.” Writing about the shutdown, Stadia basic supervisor Phil Harrison stated: “we believe this is the best path to building Stadia into a long-term, sustainable business that helps grow the industry.”

In a bid to draw builders, Google adjusted the minimize it took from gross sales on video games launched on Stadia via the top of 2023. Now, there nearly actually gained’t be a single sport launching on the service in 2023.

After Stadia misplaced video games trade veteran Jade Raymond with the shuttering of Stadia Games and Entertainment, one other skilled government was seemingly moved off the venture. Jack Buser, Stadia’s Director for Games, moved to grow to be Google Cloud’s head of Gaming Solutions.

The firm’s assertion handled this as a superb factor for Stadia: “Jack’s new role will allow us to better bring customers the best of Google across our Cloud services, Stadia, YouTube, and more,” it stated, not forgetting to say that “gaming is an incredibly important vertical at Google.”

As Stadia turned two, Google made it even inexpensive to hitch the service. The firm seemingly wished to keep away from the notion that it was a fireplace sale, although, so though it didn’t have a roadmap for Stadia’s future, it did say that it was “eager to continue working on bringing the best games and new features to our community of players so that we can help build a bright future for cloud gaming.” It additionally promised to proceed including experimental options, and to increase the varieties of video games that have been on the service.

After a Business Insider report that Stadia had been demoted inside Google and that a lot of the work had moved in direction of white-labeling, Google spokesperson Patrick Seybold informed The Verge: “While we won’t be commenting on any rumors or speculation regarding other industry partners, we are still focused on bringing great games to Stadia in 2022. With 200+ titles currently available, we expect to have another 100+ games added to the platform this year, and currently have 50 games available to claim in Stadia Pro.”

The Stadia Twitter account additionally stated that “the Stadia team is working really hard on a great future for Stadia and cloud gaming” and promised, “more feature goodness coming to Stadia too – stuff we can’t talk about just yet.”

At its Google for Games Developer Summit, the corporate introduced a number of new options for Stadia and thanked companions and gamers for his or her “ongoing support.” One of the options was “click-to-play trials,” which have been mainly immediate demos. The firm stated it was coming to all Stadia titles in “2022 and beyond.”

To be truthful, January 2023 is technically past 2022.

After the favored (and now suspended) KilledByGoogle account tweeted that Google was “beginning their exit plan” for Stadia and planning on shutting it down “by the end of summer,” Google spokesperson Justin Rende informed The Verge that “This rumor is false.” (Emphasis his.) We have been additionally informed to “expect more news from Stadia in the coming weeks and months.”

The Stadia Twitter account additionally posted a tweet making enjoyable of the KilledByGoogle one and told concerned fans that “Stadia is not shutting down.”

Stadia tweeted a couple of new sport “coming soon to Stadia.” I doubt that.