Google pivots to retain a foothold in gaming

Google has adapted its gaming strategy following a challenging start to Google Stadia, the firm’s game-streaming service, which announced the closure of its studio last year; now it is pivoting toward becoming a platform for game publishers to stream high definition cloud-based games, according to reports.

Why it matters

Gaming is a huge market, but one that Google struggled to enter using a combination of its low latency cloud streaming technology and original games studio.

Turns out that winning IP isn’t easy to come by, so the strategic shift shows how a focus on core capability and expansion through partnership can be a sleeker route through a crowded, ultra-competitive market.

A salvaging task

• Per Business Insider, which reported on a handful of intended deals with companies like Peloton as well as more established game publishers like Capcom and Bungie, Google is attempting to salvage the core tech that drove Stadia.
• A recent example of the technology in action was in Peloton’s closed demo of a new experience, Lane Break, which WARC reported on here, a fitness-based game that streams to the connected bike’s screen.
• It also has a deal with the telco AT&T, giving users the ability to stream a Batman game directly from a browser based on Google’s tech.

The problem of gaming

• The trouble for Google, which apparently wanted to avoid spending millions on the biggest titles and would rather build independent content, was that it’s an industry dominated by major titles whose importance is compounded by network effects: the more people play, the better the experience because you can play with your friends.
• Fundamentally, both the tech and content sides of the equation are extremely difficult, but at a time of consolidation the content side has made life even more difficult.

Sourced from Business Insider, WARC. [Image: Google]