Google Stadia has been out to the public for over six months now with a library of 30 titles. One of those included titles isRed Dead Redemption IIowned by Take-Two, one of the biggest companies in the gaming industry. Recently at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke about his feelings about the platform since it’s release.
“The launch of Stadia has been slow. I think there was some overpromising on what the technology could deliver and some consumer disappointment as a result,” said Zelnick. This seems to be an ongoing trend that both industry folk and consumers majorly feel similar about. Zelnick said that the company decided to work with Google due to the reality that streaming is eventually going to become a common trend in gaming and Google made the technology seem more impressive than it actually turned out to be.
“Anytime you broaden distribution you potentially broaden your audience, which is why we supported the release of Stadia with three titles initially and will continue to support high-quality streaming services as long as the business model makes sense,” Zelnick explained. “Over time I believe streaming will work… The belief that streaming was going to be transformative was based on a view that there were loads of people who really had an interest in interactive entertainment, really wanted to pay for it, but just didn’t want to have a console. I’m not sure that turned out to be the case.” Other games in the Stadia library under the Take-Two banner areNBA 2K20andBorderlands 3.
According to Gamespot, Zelnick has stated previously his less than optimistic feels regardingsubscription models as well as streaming services in gamingdue to the lower consumer usage compared to TV or film. That being said,Grand Theft Auto Vwas on Xbox Game Pass for quite some time and has recently been replaced withRed Dead Redemption II. At this point, it seems that he is open enough to the idea to keep going with the trend until further notice.
