“They see the opportunity for a shift, a point of inflection, but they realized the technical challenge of pulling something like this off.”
-Google CEO Sundar Pichai says that getting Stadia into the hands of publishers has been key to winning them over.
Google announced its game streaming service Stadia last month as a new take on a game platform that allows players to instantly access and play games on any Google Chrome-compatible device.
During a call with investors this week (transcribed by Seeking Alpha), Google CEO Sundar Pichai lightly addressed how the company is pitching that service to publishers and how conversations about bringing games onto what an investor describes as “an additional distribution outlet with billions of users” are going over.
Pichai says that there has been “genuine excitement” from the major publishers the company has spoken with and that showing the technology in action has helped to alleviate concerns over the technical challenges surrounding Stadia.
“I think people are definitely engaging in a very committed way and they are investing in it and so it’s up to us to bring it all together and have a compelling service later this year and that’s what the team has [been] working on,” says Pichai.
He goes on to note that there hasn’t necessarily been pushback from the publishers the company has spoken with “but they want to see our commitment, which is what we demonstrate and they are working hard to make the investments on their side.”
Last week Google VP and GM Phil Harrison also addressed what the streaming service has to offer publishers, noting Stadia’s internet-as-the-storefront approach “gets rid of some of the artificial barrios that have previously been put in front of players” and makes it easier overall for people to purchase games they’re interested in.
Along with that, Harrison noted that some of Stadia’s unique features, like the “state share” feature that allows players to save and share save states with others through a clickable link, have captured the attention of publishers thanks to the new marketing possibilities they offer.