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Kaser Focus: Requiescat in Pace, Stadia

Google’s prolonged dabble in the world of gaming has been put out of its misery this week. Stadia will linger in diminished form for a few months, allowing everyone to recoup their spent money, if not their time, from its body. After all the money Google spent on getting big-name games onto its platform, it still couldn’t drum up the necessary support. Not to speak ill of the recently deceased, but I view its downfall with a mix of bemusement and slight melancholy. I feel sorry for the developers and gamers blindsided by the news but not so much for the megacorporation that whiffed Stadia’s execution.

For those who don’t know, I have a history with Stadia — mostly as one of its critics. I was very skeptical about the claims Google was pushing about its new service; one of the first articles I wrote about it was to point out that, contrary to its claims to be a console-less gaming service, the only way to access it at launch was to buy a $129 “Founder’s Edition” with a Chromecast. Also, I criticized the company trying to position its product as a “solution” to expensive console gaming, when Stadia would rely on reliable, fast internet, which isn’t cheap itself.

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Rachel Kaser

Rachel Kaser is a gaming and technology writer for from Dallas, Texas. She's been in the games industry since 2013, writing for various publications, and currently covers news for GamesBeat. Her favorite game is Bayonetta.