this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
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'Morale is at an all-time low': Ex-Googler writes scathing latter slamming layoffs and 'eroded' culture::An ex-Googler wrote a 1,500-word letter criticizing the firm and CEO Sundar Pichai's lack of "visionary leadership."

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[–] [email protected] 153 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (29 children)

Sundar Pichai has got to be the worst CEO in the silicon valley period

Google has managed to produce next to nothing of value with a dreamteam of engineers the likes of which no one else had access to

From one uninspired leadership decision to the next they've just been sitting there bolstering what's already there while every once in a while adding a new product to the Google graveyard

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

They did produce something of value, Stadia, but instead of investing in it further with some exclusive games to show off its capabilities and lure more people and developers in ... or just outright signing a deal to paying for the development cost to port some hits or Call of Duty to Stadia, they wrote it off, refunded everything, and shut it down.

It's a major fail, they tried next to nothing to fix their messaging issues, failed to invest in areas that would've made a difference, and didn't stick with it to challenge people's beliefs that Stadia was going to be shut down.

They should've:

  • Made a guarantee that if they shut down within the next 10 years, every game you play will be refunded in full.
  • Did a hardware upgrade to bring Stadia past consoles.
  • Never shut down their in house studios and invested even more into bringing other studios in.
  • Really upsold the cheat free experience (with no client side anticheat spyware necessary) and the ability for the platform to make even the games with the worst netcode stable multiplayer experiences.
  • Made something like steam workshop for Stadia and worked with at least one developer to prove that it works (they said they were open to mods, but they needed developers to take interest)
  • Potentially resolved the "you have to buy all your games again" concern by offering to buy everything on the platform in your steam, xbox, or PlayStation library 1 time (so you couldn't "import" multiple times or buy new games on another platform and then import them for free).

Imagine if people literally just pressed a few buttons on their old gaming computer and suddenly could play a bunch of their steam library in the cloud with better graphics for free on any device they wanted. I can't imagine folks wouldn't have stuck around with that kind of a deal.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

with some exclusive games

Sweetie, you don't just get heavy-hitting exclusives right out the gate.

In what world does Google shell out enough cash for a game that's so good it pulls people to Stadia when the developers can just sell their good game on already-proven platforms?

They'd have to make their own studio or contract it out. I never saw Google shelling out $50m for a AAA game, and small-time shit is stuff people can just get on their phones.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

That's the point. They started their own game studio when Stadia was launched and shut it down about a year later.

They also paid a lot of money for some of the licenses they got in the early days of Stadia. And then someone a pay grade or two above decided to stop this and suffocate the little bit of momentum the platform had gained.

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