While Google Stadia’s gaming streaming tech works, it did not expand the game’s audience as some had hoped, that’s according Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick’s assessment. The veteran games executive spoke at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference (via Gamespot) about the potential for game streaming, and its current realities. More specifically, Zelnick and co did not expect Stadia to have as little of an impact as it did. “The launch of Stadia has been slow,” said Zelnick. “I think there was some overpromising on what the technology could deliver and some consumer disappointment as a result.” Zelnick, of course, is more interested in how streaming has the potential to attract many more players, the likes of whom will never buy a game console. This is part of what encouraged Take-Two to support Stadia early on.
“Anytime you broaden distribution you potentially broaden your audience, which is why we supported the release of Stadia with three titles initially and will continue to support high-quality streaming services as long as the business model makes sense,” he explained. “The belief that streaming was going to be transformative was based on a view that there were loads of people who really had an interest in interactive entertainment, really wanted to pay for it, but just didn’t want to have a console. I’m not sure that turned out to be the case,” he added. With that in mind, Zelnick says game streaming is going to work, and matter on a broader scale down the line.
