Android
Google Plus launched in 2011.
I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that 2008 is also when they bought Double Click.
So yeah - what have they released after that?
Stadia had potential, but google killed it. What else?
seriously though they have just been building their base while also trying to grow. they do have a bit of a short attention span regarding growing though. if you don't catch on like gmail yer gone.
It took a generation for xbox to "catch on". It really took off only in x360 era and later. Imagine if the xbox was killed off in 2004.
Stadia was shut down after 3 years and first party devs were laid off even earlier. That's completely insane - it takes years to develop proper AAA games.
Just look what SONY first party studios are doing. Imagine if Naughty Dog was dissolved after 3 years.
The Wii U was weak, but Nintendo didn't leave gamedev business. They learned from their mistakes and the Switch became a huge success.
PSNow streaming service is still running just fine and SONY doesn't plan to shut it down. So game streaming business model is certainly viable.
It seems like that Google didn't even try to make Stadia a success.
I use Apple and iOS devices because I have to do iOS development for work… I use Linux and Windows where they make sense and I live a cross platform lifestyle… but I think I’ve actively used a chromecast once in my entire life, because it’s never been better than plugging my own shit into a hdmi port with a cable from my bag…
Whats the point beyond TVs that aren’t smart? (Mine isn’t smart… but I’ve got an Apple TV as a dev device for testing.)
Is there a point beyond that? I’m genuinely curious as someone that’s given away literally a dozen chromecast dongles because I give zero fucks about the Google ecosystem of lock in garbage that might be abandoned tomorrow… oh and fuck attaching physical spyware dongles to my home network… cannot emphasise that enough.