Take-Two CEO says Google Stadia is inferior to consoles - no sign of huge demand

Take-Two Interactive boss Strauss Zelnick is no longer enthusiastic about Google's Stadia cloud gaming service. Speaking at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference, Zelnick said Google overpromised. Before the service launched, Zelnick was optimistic about Stadia's potential but six months after launch he's questioning Stadia's merits:

Zelnick’s reading of the market could spell trouble for all streaming services. The business model of Stadia and other cloud gaming services relies on the assumption that more people will play video games if they don’t need dedicated hardware. But will they? As Zelnick points out, we’re talking about games that cost $60, and some special edition games can reach $100 or more. Are the people willing to buy a $60 game really unwilling to buy a $300 console?

“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,” Zelnick said. “I’m not sure that turned out to be the case.”

Take-Two has three games available via Stadia: Borderlands 3, Red Dead Redemption 2 en NBA 2K20

Via: ExtremeTech