Google hopes Stadia’s ‘gender neutral’ design will appeal to women

Google hopes Stadia’s “gender neutral” design approach can help it attract female gamers it says its rivals have not traditionally targeted.

Stadia’s most recognisable piece of hardware is its controller, which has been engineered to appeal to both men and women, according to Google industrial designer Jason Pi.

“It’s made for small and large hands so it’s super usable for a large segment of gamers that aren’t always appreciated,” he says in the video on this page.

Google is currently selling the Stadia controller in three colours: white, black and ‘wasabi’.

User testing found the wasabi controller had “universal appeal” according to Google director of design Isabelle Olsson.

“Both men and women gravitated towards this colour,” she told CNN. “It ended up being super gender neutral but still very expressive. It’s really hard to find colours like that.”

Google VP and Stadia GM Phil Harrison, who has previously held senior roles at both PlayStation and Xbox, also told CNN: “Some of our historical competitors in the console space have been a bit more masculine and a bit more mechanical in their approach.”

Stadia is available in 14 markets from today and users will be able to begin buying and playing the Stadia launch games at 9am PST/5pm BST/6pm CET.

The first Stadia reviews suggest Google has lots of work to do if the platform is going to fulfil its potential.