Google Stadia has closed and now we know why: the market share was negligible

As part of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the CM extension (Competition and Markets Authority) of the United Kingdom analyzed the market and released interesting numbers on the former “Google Stadia”. Apparently the cloud gaming platform offered by Google not only failed to take off, but had a negligible impact on the market.

The first relevant data taken into consideration was the market share gained by Stadia shortly before its closure. It must be said that this is an estimated number, but very close to the real figure thanks to the documents provided by the competitors: Stadia had between 0% and 5% of cloud users in 2022.

Google has never provided exact numbers for its service, not even for the survey, and the estimate is based on data from Xbox Cloud Gaming, GeForce Now And Playstation Now. However, even after its launch, Stadia’s results were not in line with Google’s expectations, but in 2022 it continued to lose ground to the competition, which prompted Mountain View to close the project.

But what is the reason for the failure? The regulatory body believes that the bankruptcy played an at least partial role the lack of contentlinked to the use of an operating system Linux. The CMA notes that this is an industry dominated by Microsoft, sony and Nvidia and being able to propose a competing platform is already extremely difficult now.

Indeed, the CMA attributes an inclusive market share to Microsoft between 60% and 70% at the end of 2022, even if it is a data that will have to be analyzed further. Companies like Microsoft and Sony also offer their cloud gaming services as part of other subscriptions, such as Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which could lead to double counting of some players. Conversely, many more may count towards you while not using them, since it’s a free extension from a different package.

However, what clearly emerges is that, at least at present, the British body does not share the agreement as it is structured between Activision-Blizzard and Microsoft. In particular, he believes the merger could prevent other platforms from offering a competitive game library if Microsoft were to make some of the titles exclusive. Of course, the reference mostly falls on call of Dutywhich represents one of the best-selling franchises on any platform.

For its part, Microsoft has reiterated several times that Call of Duty will remain accessible on all platforms that want to support it, including PlayStation, but even Sony’s fears have never dissipated. For these reasons, the regulator has already anticipated that will suggest the corrections to be applied to the contract acquisition between the two gaming giants.