Re:It doesn't matter what a PM at Google tells you
by xwowsersx on Friday September 30, 2022 @10:01PM
(#33043074)
What I don't understand then is why exactly people are upset with Google here. Is the expectation that when you launch a platform that people build on top of and involves partnerships with external partners that you should be hesitant to shut down given the investment that others have made based on your representations? I hear that, but has to have a limit. People can't expect Google to keep stuff around that really doesn't make sense for them. Is the issue that Google cheerleads these products and gets partners riled up, but is so quick to shutter them and demonstrates no concern for their partners? Like, what precisely is the critique?
The problem, of course, is that doing this is going to have downstream impacts if Google wants to stay in the gaming tech market (and some ancillary impacts on the perception of their stability as a tech partner in general). Whether that's worth the burn rate on the BU is a question that presumably was asked and answered, and led to this shutdown.
By contrast, of course, AWS is willing to keep solutions going essentially forever, even if they're on life support; while players like Microsoft or Intel are a lot more cautious about new BU initiatives in the first place. Google seems to be in a questionable middle ground of aggressively greenlighting new initiatives, but being unwilling to take the financial hit of sustaining them even if they don't pan out as desired.