![]() ![]() These games were to use Stadia’s cloud-based streaming tech in innovative ways that were impossible on PCs or consoles. ![]() ![]() The two SG&E studios based in LA and Montreal were reportedly working on first-party cloud-based games that simply could not be achieved on other, standalone platforms. Headed by industry veteran Jade Raymond (Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs), SG&E was considered by fans to be the ultimate expression of Stadia’s promise. On February 1, Google announce that it was shuttering Stadia Games & Entertainment, Stadia's first party video game development branch. Of course, with recent events, that fort has needed a lot more reinforcement. ![]() For the members of Team Stadia, it hasn’t been enough to enjoy Stadia, they needed to build a fort around it and defend it – a small cadre of influencers entrenched against the world. Since Stadia’s inception, they have bolstered Stadia against daily attacks, constantly requesting new games be added to the system, and calling out Stadia’s exclusion from most major websites and news sources. Since day one, they have had to face down haters and doubters, resolute in their collective positivity and devotion to their platform of choice. #TeamStadia, as they are known on Twitter, have always been scrappers. It has been a wild couple of weeks, and the rollercoaster ride has been kind of exhausting to watch. Over the course of the last several weeks, the Stadia fanbase has been torn apart by unexpected news, drawn lines in the sand, splinted into factions, regrouped to fully fund a Kickstarter, and then stood together against a common enemy. Over the trials of the last couple of weeks, Stadia fanhood has shown that, when pressed, it can become laser-like in its precision, and wall-like in its defense of the platform that spawned it. Here’s the thing – the Stadia fanbase, generally a united, inclusive, and amiable bunch, has been rocked by a series of events that have shaken it down to its core – forcing the community to circle the wagons and rebuild itself into something much more focused. I don’t think this makes me less of a Stadia fan – but others might disagree with me. I love gaming in general, and I’m willing to swim anywhere the water is warm. I love those platforms too, just as much as I love Stadia. I write for a general gaming site, so I also play on PS5, a PS4, a Nintendo Switch, Amazon Luna, NVIDIA GeForce Now, an Oculus Quest 2, and I’m thinking about an Xbox Series X as soon as they become common enough for me to pick one up without spending too much energy on the hunt. Some Stadia fans are ride-or-die loyal to the platform, forsaking all others in their devotion. Of course, Stadia fandom means different things to different people. The ability to bounce between screens is just so convenient when I am trying to pound through a giant game in one weekend. When I have the option to, I always default to playing on Stadia. As a game reviewer, I sometimes end up with multiple copies of the same game on several platforms. My Stadia library has well over 100 games in it, many of which are Free-with-Pro games that I have never fired up. I play Stadia on my PC, on my phone, and on my living room TV, when I can boot my kids off of Netflix long enough to get a session in. I have two Stadia controllers, which I feel are some of the finest controllers on the market. Unsurprising true confession time: I am a Stadia fan. ![]()
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