I think they really failed to deliver on the core promise of Stadia: making games a part of the internet the way YouTube videos are.
If they really made it the case that AAA gaming was just another type of content you might bump into in a pre-roll ad, or in one of your social media content streams, I have a hard time imagining how that would not be a massive success.
It's an incredibly rich form of content, and they would have been competitive in so many ways. Think about all the kids and teenagers out there who would love to play games and for whatever reason can't get access to gaming hardware.
If they could somehow get a free taste of AAA games on their phones, it seems like you would be able to find some way to make that profitable over time.
Instead it ended up being a worse console which nobody knew existed.
It was part of the initial announcement. They talked about for instance being able to watch a streamer on YouTube, and press a button to pick up in the game right where they are.
If they really made it the case that AAA gaming was just another type of content you might bump into in a pre-roll ad, or in one of your social media content streams, I have a hard time imagining how that would not be a massive success.
It's an incredibly rich form of content, and they would have been competitive in so many ways. Think about all the kids and teenagers out there who would love to play games and for whatever reason can't get access to gaming hardware.
If they could somehow get a free taste of AAA games on their phones, it seems like you would be able to find some way to make that profitable over time.
Instead it ended up being a worse console which nobody knew existed.