Google has announced a new Stadia Connect is incoming, and it’s placed in quite the hot spot once again. Announced on the official Stadia Twitter account, the cloud-based service is revealed to be holding its next presentation of everything Stadia-related on August 19, which is also the Opening Night for Gamescom 2019. Sure enough, Google Stadia will also be at the event in Cologne, Germany. Check out the tweet below.
The first Stadia presentation revealed a handful of launch games for the upcoming service, as well as giving us a look at its pricing model and network speed requirements. You can check out a full recap of what was shown in the first Stadia presentation here.
While there is a certain excitement for the cloud-based service, there are also more than a few doubts as to its viability for the greater market at large. Issues like input lag and latency, full-priced games even on the Stadia Pro, and the existence of data caps have sparked a debate on Stadia and what it has to offer for potential customers besides the ability to play on a small number of Android mobile devices (not all of them, apparently), laptops, tablets, and smart TVs. Check out my piece here with regards to which market the Stadia is aiming for.
All of that said, the Stadia can still turn some of that negative public perception around if they play their cards right with this new Connect. It won’t be easy to convert the already existing market of console and PC gamers, but if this service is to survive, it should offer something that will get these players to switch.
In particular, Google should absolutely rethink the “Netflix for games” model and start from there. The crux of what made Stadia so popular during its earlier announcements was that it was seemingly being modelled like a subscription service for an entire digital library. We all knew how that turned out, given the significant coverage of the recent Reddit AMA with the Director of Product for Google Stadia. It would be smart for Google to rethink this, as paying a monthly fee for a library of games is guaranteed to sell better than buying individual games for full price.
Google’s second Stadia Connect will be airing here on August 19 at 1:00 p.m. EDT.
