Well if the service is failing and they need games that draw, a consistent reliable company that isn't tied up in more recent controversy would be key, otherwise chalk another one up for the Google trash bin.

It would mean that there would be no more potential growth in the gaming sector ...

What exactly is the investment required for a streaming service like that? It seems to me (who is admittedly uneducated on this matter) that the costs would be a drop in the bucket for a company like google. They presumably already have a lot of the infrastructure, and there is no actual hardware beyond the controllers to manufacture. I'm guessing they could pretty easily survive a slow take off. If anything, I would say this is a soft launch for stadia. It's hard to market it when so many people already have a PS4 or XBox One and both systems are only 130 dollars more expensive than the stadia controller alone (although it works with other controllers I think). The real push for it will come when the next next gen consoles are launched. Suddenly when playing next gen games costs at least 400 dollars, the stadia becomes a way more attractive option.

Google wants an all or nothing approach, and it's easy to scare away. If Stadia were to fail Google would close it, people who bought stuff there would be shit out of luck because they didn't actually own anything, the exclusives Google had funded would go to other platforms, and their developers would stay in Google doing nothing of note until they are dissolved.

Google would just drop it, like they did with so many other things in the past.

“If?”

How so? Most people who invest a lot in videogames would rather get updated pieces of hardware, either console or PC, just because they want to play without risks of poor streaming performance, and they would be much better informed of the risks of this kind of service (not to mention having access to other gaming streaming-like services). People who don't really care about videogames won't invest heavily in Stadia either because you still have to buy your games either way, so they would either keep themselves to outdated hardware and/or just straight FTP mobile games. Stadia is aiming for an almost non-existant crowd.

They'll just kill it off if it fails. There isn't too much unique tech in here - not in software, not in hardware - it's just the integration level that is interesting: play a game as soon as you see it on youtube, etc...

While the future is probably heavily digital, this would delay a streaming option, keeping the current model of buying digital games.

Google wont buy any of those publishers.

Also: https://killedbygoogle.com/

Stadia will have a few years time to become successful. It's a good pioneering start and it has to be made. While Stadia might not be a massive success, it will certainly be a stepping stone for other services. Streaming games is an inevitability, not a gimmick. Current generations are already growing up with content and entertainment on demand. In a few decades the concept of getting specialized hardware just to play games will be an alien concept.

I hope they keep at it because there is no one who could do a better job of it, they already have the perfect infrastructure to support it.