Dear Developers: Slow Your Roll

Dear Developers,

If you haven't heard by now... Google has shut down the internal studios for its Stadia platform. I shared my concern in a prior post some time back because I didn't know where the platform would go as a streaming service. There are multiple options for gaming, so you have to make sure that you're on point with everything regarding your service or products.

Google isn't completely shutting down Stadia, it's their first-party games... which tends to be the siding factor on what platform a gamer will invest in. Closing studios is... not a good look!

They could have taken the 3rd party route first, making multiplatform games (under... "Google Games" or "Stadia Studios" or something) and built up a library before they took the Stadia platform route.

At the same time, they could have just started on Google Play and built up their 1st party developer status. From there they could have flipped it and made console games available on Chromecast w/ Google TV once it was ready and keep the achievements tied to the same system as mobile apps. I just think there was too much going on to do too much because the competitors have been strong in the console department... and PC is a beast so the best bet would've been Google Play.

When the time came for streaming, all the games would've needed in Google Play was their own category representing first party originals with a little label to represent them as stream-only titles.

Ideas may seem great at the time, but... it's always good to take the best route for longevity and victory. You don't want to spread yourself thing only to exhaust much-needed resources. I don't know what the cancellation of first-party games will mean for Stadia, but... if they bundle it with another service I think it could survive. 

Overall, they need to keep 1st & 2nd party development in the conversation... because Onlive was 3rd party-only too, and you saw what happened there. Two of the studios will close which will impact 150 developers... and that sucks royally. Try again when you can Google, but... slow your roll.

Read more on Google's plan to close their Montreal & LA studios... here!

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My Response To: Ugly Guys Need To Work Harder + More!

Google Plus goes buh-bye!

As of February 4th, Google Plus began its shutdown. Google Plus pages like ours will also bite the dust April 2nd, 2019 (tear tear). 

https://plus.google.com/+SDGTEntertainment

Google plus always felt like the little engine that couldn't... but... it tried. Why didn't it reach its full potential? That's a great question for Google. They have a popular phone OS (one of the giants), they have Chromecast, they have Chromebook, they have Chrome, they have YouTube (and then some). There was actually going to be a "Dear Developers" post speaking about Google Plus (etc) but... it's still sitting in the draft area from January 2nd, 2019.

Now that it's end has come... I guess i'll go ahead and speak about it and how it could've survive. Basically, I think Google Plus would've been bigger than it was if it were actually a lot more cohesive with other Google apps than it was. Yes you can share... just like we shared on Google Plus, but if it were more integrated in the Android phones, Chromebooks, and so forth... it wouldn't have felt like it was tucked in the back somewhere.

Before they even launched Google Plus... they should've figured out how to have Google Plus comments sync with YouTube comments or replace it. Standard chat on Chromebook and Android could've been through Google Plus using our contacts that we add to our chat list. That could've included standard phone contacts, and contacts through Google apps. Google Plus isn't the only app that would've been covered in that post... because I wanted to highlight that Google and other software developers should consider making things cohesive for one kick ass ecosystem.

Making multiple ambitious apps that serve a number of purposes is cool. Different strokes for different folks, but... if its something meant to target the user base at large... its sad to see the resources wasted on something that likely just needed a bit more integration in the right places. I'm curious though... will there be something new from Google that rises like a Phoenix from the ashes of Google Plus? We shall see.

If you have content that you'd like to salvage, get to it asap.

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