Despite the disastrous downfall of of its Stadia game service, Google appears ready to try again via its YouTube platform.
Google promised to revolutionize online gaming when it unveiled its Stadia service in early 2019. The company went all in, even setting up its own game studio to make titles. Less than two years later, Google had shut down its game studio, and three and a half years after launching Stadia, Google shut it down.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, however, it appears Google may be preparing to make another go of it by leveraging its YouTube platform. Google evidently hopes to capitalize on YouTube’s popularity among gamers, with many relying on the platform to watch their favorite games and streamers.
The service is already being tested internally. WSJ says online games could also be a way for Neal Mohan, YouTube’s CEO, to boost revenue at a time when its ad revenue is taking a hit.
“Gaming has long been a focus at YouTube,” a company spokesman told the outlet. “We’re always experimenting with new features, but have nothing to announce right now.”
The biggest challenge Google will likely face is not launching a gaming service, but convincing people to invest in it. Google has a horrible reputation of launching and then killing off services, with a veritable graveyard of abandoned products in its wake. After users invested so heavily in Stadia, they may be wary of trusting yet another of the company’s gaming endeavors.