> Definitely a dark pattern and results in a lot of garbage clicks if you overlook that setting.
I really don't get this part. What's Google's interest in pointless clicks? Short term they could get some extra charge for those, but if they don't convert they lose a customer. On the other hand, for quality clicks they could just charge 5x the price and nobody would complain.
Let’s say with your optimised settings your ROI is 20%. With Google settings is 15%.
An end user might say 15% is pretty good and don’t touch it.
Google just earned 5% by giving you worst ROI.
If you start comparing with other ad providers you’l you might notice you’re being screwed. But low spenders rarely do proper checks.
As a gamer, I think Stadia failed because the system they created doesn't make sense. You had to buy games at real $40-$60 prices but you could only play them through this limited service. I don't think anyone wants that.
Compare that to paying the same price for a regular PC game which you can play via streaming using a streaming service, but also play locally, and know that you can take that game with you through multiple hardware decides and streaming services.
With Stadia, if I move somewhere with bad internet, there is no way to recover the value of my games I purchased. There is no other gaming system like that. All other systems either have an offline possibility or are pure streaming where you aren't making a game purchase investment, like Xbox Gamepass or Luna.
It just doesn't make sense except to a really small niche and is not competitive to the average gamer.