Stadia

When it comes to the technical aspect of Google Stadia and whether they can really do what they claim, the guys at Digital Foundry will probably have the definitive analysis. But the overall idea of a behemoth entering the industry is probably the more provocative talking point. Google has tremendous resources and while we have seen attempts to do cloud gaming MAYBE Google will be the company that finally cracks it. But whether Google came in with a console or purely on cloud - Google as a player is interesting. They have killed products before, they have tried social multiple times and failed, they have a platform like Android and didn't try to compete on that end like what Apple is doing with Apple Arcade. They announced at GDC, their messaging was aimed at console gamers, their test/demo was Assassin's Creed Odyssey - not a mobile iteration - the full game.

Google is going to have their own studio, the "platform" will probably draw developers - I THINK its a good thing. I understand being dismissive of mobile gamers and the free-to-play model, but Candy Crush and Temple Run attracted gamers who might have never considered gaming and videogames as an entertainment medium is more diverse because of mobile gaming. Google could do something similar and they are operating in a space that might be between mobile and console - IF you frown upon mobile gaming and it STILL produced a title like Monument Valley, imagine what Google Stadia could cultivate.

I don't think Google will kill the industry - by either becoming too big and destroying Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo and then killing the product or by being so horrible that it kills the industry altogether - or anything in between. Yes, I can see how Stadia MAY BE the beginning of the end, but again I doubt it. NaS had a similar sentiment towards hip-hop and was worried that the entire genre would be dismantled by some garbage rappers - releasing an album titled Hip-Hop is Dead. Our medium is not a flash in the pan, it is not a fad, it will survive with or without Google, like Hip-Hop - its established.