The Google Stadia Keynote launched just a couple of days ago and had a ton of information about the future of the platform. This didn’t cover upcoming games but what it did cover was the plans it had for the game developers going forward. This was presented in multiple presentations but I will sum up the important parts.
So this keynote mostly focused on the plans for the game developers and deals they will be putting in play. Let me go over the key points. Then I’ll talk about what this all could mean for you and me.
Developer Incentives
Careen Yapp is part of the Strategic Business Development Team and she’s first of up with the new developer incentive announcements.
Google is now offering a very competitive rate for developers to develop their game on Stadia. They will be getting paid by the game and with a new 85/15 split in revenue sharing for upcoming titles, the incentives to develop on Stadia are huge.
Not only that, but the Affiliate marketing plan will also help make money for developers. This way they can market their game on Stadia and convert users over to Stadia Pro. Hopefully the Affiliate program will extend to YouTubers and other affiliate marketers as well.
New Developer Tools
Next up, we have the Stadia Technical Session that deals with the new developer tools to help make creating and porting over games easier. Elisabeth, Ryan, and Robert go over in detail the fundamentals of how they are helping developers work with Stadia.
I won’t bore you with the details but all you really need to know is this: These new tools will help developers view and test their game on various platforms and ease certificate requirements. They also have made it easy to integrate games developed from popular game engines Unity and Unreal. They also made a toolkit for integrating custom game engines into Stadia.
All of this can and should open the game developer floodgates so Stadia as a platform will be a top option for developers to come and publish their game.
New Stadia Partners
Last and certainly not least, are the new partners for Stadia. For me, this might be the most important part of the Keynote. Product Manager Alan Joyce reveals the new partners they have that will support Stadia on their products so everyone who purchases products with these specific brands will have easy access to Stadia.
Overview
So what does this all mean in a nutshell?
- Game developers will be paid for people playing their game at a competitive rate. This will encourage many game developers to come and make games on Stadia.
- Google is making the developer tools much easier to use to port their game over to Stadia.
- New Stadia Partners. This will make it easier to find Stadia on whatever device you are using. No more stupid Chromecast.
Easy means of game development means many more games that will be published to the platform. They will also get paid more for doing so. One of the reasons you do not see many AAA games on Stadia is because it takes too much time to port over the development resources to Stadia and get it tested and running properly. These new development tools should make this much easier. The new Stadia partners will make it easy so everyone with a device will be able to play games on Stadia, from anywhere.
Imagine the Stadia app on Smart TVs and all you have to do is sync your controller – ANY controller to your TV to play HD to UHD quality AAA games instantly and all you have to do is sign-in with your Google Account.
Imagine Stadia getting more free-to-play games from this. Turn on your TV or device, hit the Stadia app and you are now playing Destiny 2, Apex Legends maybe Warzone competitively for free. Guys this is a wrap for consoles. We are now entering the age of gaming. This is Cloud gaming. Let me know what you guys
