Google tries to reassure gamers it’s behind Stadia for the long haul

Enlarge / A Google Stadia controller sits behind glass with a mock-up of a retro game store. (credit: Kyle Orland)

In a Reddit AMA yesterday, Google Stadia Director of Product Andrey Doronichev provided a few more tidbits about what features will and will not be available when the streaming game service launches in November. But as he did so, he had to convince some skeptical potential customers that Stadia won’t end up in the same corporate graveyard as many other Google service experiments.

Doronichev compared Google’s commitment to Stadia to services like Gmail, Docs, Music, Movies and Photos, which have persisted for years with no sign of imminent shutdown. “We’ve been investing a ton in tech, infrastructure, and partnerships [for Stadia] over the past few years,” Doronichev said. “Nothing in life is certain, but we’re committed to making Stadia a success… Of course, it’s OK to doubt my words. There’s nothing I can say now to make you believe if you don’t. But what we can do is to launch the service and continue investing in it for years to come.”

Doronichev also compared the transition to streaming gaming to similar transitions that have already largely taken place in the movie and music industries, and with cloud storage of personal files like photos and written documents. While acknowledging that “moving to the cloud is scary,” he also insisted that “eventually all of our games will be safely in the cloud, too, and we’ll feel great about it.”