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Google’s lengthy plodding into the world of gaming has come to an end this week. Stadia will hang around in reduced form for a few months, allowing everyone to recover their spent money, if not their time, from their body. After all the money Google spent on getting big names on its platform, it still couldn’t get the support it needed. Not to mention the recently deceased, but I view its demise with a mixture of bewilderment and slight melancholy. I feel sorry for the developers and gamers caught off guard by the news, but not so much for the megacorporation that made Stadia’s performance smell.
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 made about its new service – one of the first articles I wrote about it to point out that, contrary to the claim that it’s a console-less gaming service, the only way to access it at launch was to buy a $129 “Founder’s Edition” with a Chromecast . Me too criticized the company trying to position its product as a “solution” to expensive console gaming, while Stadia would rely on reliable, fast internet, which itself isn’t cheap.
Looking back, I may not have been completely honest with Stadia. I briefly subscribed to Stadia Pro, both out of genuine curiosity and a desire to critique it from an educated position. I wasn’t particularly impressed or offended by what I saw, although I liked Gylt from Tequila Works. While the platform itself didn’t impress me, I now recognize that cloud gaming has more future in the gaming world than I expected at the time. But I maintain that Google wouldn’t get us there. The idea was (somewhat) good – the execution was not.
So, in other news, Skull and Bones has been pushed back even further. I’m not sure what could be wrong with a few months of development being able to fix it, but right now I just want this game removed from the “upcoming” release calendar. And just to prove that I’m not a complete sourpuss – I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve seen from Slime Rancher 2 so far! I played this past weekend and I enjoyed returning to the land of jelly creatures and candy colored leaves. If Google hadn’t decided to take down Stadia, this week’s Kaser Focus might have been nothing but a Slime Rancher 2 rating column.
What to play this week?
What’s new:
- FIFA 23
- Deathverse: Let It Die
- grounded
- Valkyrie Elysium
- moonscars
- Railway
- dome keeper
- Terra Invicta
- Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator
New on subscription services:
- Let’s Build a Zoo (Xbox Game Pass)
- Valheim (Xbox Game Pass)
- Windbound (Xbox games with gold)
- Skate Bird (Luna Prime)
- Earthworm Jim 2 (Luna Prime)
- Star Wars pinball machine (Luna Prime)
- Monster Truck Championship (Luna Prime)
- Metro Exodus (Luna Prime)
- Blair Witch (Luna Prime)
- Kena: Bridge of Ghosts (GeForce Now)
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (GeForce Now)
- Ground Branch (GeForce Now)
- Jagged Alliance: Rage! (GeForce Now)
- River City Saga: Three Kingdoms (GeForce Now)
- Weable (GeForce Now)
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