I think its less about the gap but more about the fact that the product was released in a not suitable state and then left like that for 40 days. If they had released it mid year and fixed all of the issues before the holidays people would be ok with that.

It gives off the vibe that this is another one of googles random side projects that no one really cares about and will be scrapped in a year. Which is extra concerning since people have spent real money on the hardware and games.

And in this case you only get to keep the hardware you bought, not the games since they are not physical.

Though I don't think the hardware would be all that usable if the service was shut down.

The Chromecast is a Chromecast, and the controller works on my PC with steam just fine. (Although it appears wireless doesn't work)

You're conflating two different sides of the industry (as is the parent comment.) A game dev studio is not expected to have monthly updates for any but the largest games. A store or platform, on the other hand, lives and dies by its content.

Playstation Plus has a batch of free games each month for $5 a month, Xbox has something similar, Steam has sales and endless new content on the regular, Epic has given away several games a month for a couple years now. Once a month updates at a $10 subscription is table stakes here.

> A store or platform, on the other hand, lives and dies by its content.

I agree that content is important, but if you're talking about new games, Google doesn't have much control, the developers works on those not Google.

> Playstation Plus has a batch of free games each month for $5 a month, Xbox has something similar

But this isn't about the free monthy Stadia content. Stadia has been giving 2 free games the first of every month since launch and has not slipped a single day. The two games for February were just announced.

> I agree that content is important, but if you're talking about new games, Google doesn't have much control

Doesn't matter, Google's gonna get the flak for it. People bought hardware and a subscription from Google. If they're not getting value from it, for whatever reason and whomever's fault, they're going to be mad at Google.

Why did Google release a platform if they didn't have enough games lined up and ready? I assume they're hoping they'll be able to weather this negative sentiment and do have games planned in the wings, but we'll see.

Give the cadence in which Stadia could release new content, it would make sense to have had that pipeline filled so that they could release a new game every day.

At some point, there will be a zero-install gaming service like Twitch/Itch and devs can connect directly to fans for realtime playtesting, etc. So much, so little.

Seems a bit silly to assume they're the same group of people, no?