Google's Stadia game controller.
Google's Stadia game controller.
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The DeanBeat: Two stories that show the opportunity and heartbreak of modern gaming

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 4 min

Yesterday, two stories told the tale of the modern game industry. On the one hand, heartbreak. On the other, massive opportunity.

Google announced that its Stadia cloud gaming service would shut down in January 2023, ending a high-profile bet to provide console-like quality games over the cloud to just about any user hardware. The company had spent a lot of money on each game it acquired (according to Bloomberg) and the masses of subscribers for the service never materialized.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.