Like many very successful companies, I think Google’s ability to launch new products is directly constrained by the success of its core products. Google search is a thin portal atop others’ content. Youtube, when it’s functioning correctly, is the same; Google falls down in exactly the ways they need a more direct hand. When Google tries to do a game service, it approaches it just like its other products, so to the extent games require exclusives and direct relationships with consumer sales, they fall down.
It’s the same way Microsoft was hobbled by Windows’ business model until Windows became marginal enough that they could feel comfortable shipping software on other platforms. Now, as a business-services company, they believe in ‘our services where the customer is’, and that extends in other ways that may be detrimental to their businesses – all the Xbox-exclusive content showing up on PC doesn’t help the Xbox ecosystem, but it might be better-positioned for a post-platform (streaming) world.