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Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

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Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#471

Post by ehsankia »

FridgeSeal wrote: post #299
rco8786 wrote: post #198

This is totally the right move. I am a (very happy) user of Stadia. If you haven't tried it, you really should...it's an amazing piece of tech. I can find myself with 20-30 minutes worth of downtime during the day, fire up Cyberpunk 2077 or Hitman or Assassin's Creed in moments from my browser *on a macbook* and play at high settings with no noticeable lag. Obviously you need a strong, steady internet connection for…

> Obviously you need a strong, steady internet connection for Stadia to shine, but I'd guess that the HN crowd skews towards that. Sad Australian internet noises. > don't want to drop $1k+ on a gaming rig, check out Stadia. Or, or, do buy the gaming rig, because it will still work and you’ll still have the games 3 years after Google inevitably shuts down stadia and you’re left with nothing.

> after Google inevitably shuts down stadia and you’re left with nothing

There is literally no way Google shuts down Stadia and doesn't refund people their money and let them export their save files (you can already do the latter). So no, the worst worst case is that you got to play on Stadia for free and if you really want the game again you can use that money to buy it somewhere else.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#472

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

enos_feedler wrote: post #402
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At least they are winding things down faster. Google announced the studio in mid 2019 and shutting it down in early 2021. Microsoft decided retail stores were a good idea in 2011, and only closed them off last year. You're really selling me on using Microsoft over Google here: If I'm using a product/service, I'd prefer that it stay around as long as possible even if the company decides that it's a failure. Bonus po…

What do you think would happen? You wake up one day and everything is gone? As much as I am not selling Google vs. MSFT, give Goog some credit. They would make customers whole financially and find a home for the platform.

> What do you think would happen? You wake up one day and everything is gone?

Yes, actually that's about what I expect. Not literally in a day, but fully do expect that in another year or two Google will announce that Stadia is going away and that in a few months it'll be gone. Games were rentals, not leased/sold, so they'll stop charging but you'll hardly be able to take your games with you. Saves might be Takout-able, so if you go re-buy the games you can keep playing... probably... if you even have hardware to game on...

In contrast, I've known people who ran MS software locally for months-to-years after it was obsolete/discontinued, and non-Microsoft software even longer (cue the classical story of the business that held on to their DOS software until Windows XP finally made it too painful to use).

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#473

Post by oivey »

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #447
p1necone wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really think "non-gamers" are going to be converted by this? At this point if you're a "non-gamer" it isn't for lack of availability. You seem to be using "non-gamer" as a synonym for "too inexperienced to use basic modern technology", which I don't think is a widespread problem outside of age ranges that didn't grow up with the internet. A much bigger group is surely just people that aren't that interested in…

Just go read /r/stadia or the /r/games thread covering this, yes people are convinced by this and there's many comments talking about how they can't stand the UX on GFN. Too inexperienced to use technology is a strawman, the real comparison is do they prefer the benefit of the better UX more than they fear the amorphous dangers of lock-in. The answer is easily yes.

Do a handful of posts on the tiny Stadia subreddit justify the massive investment Google has made to create yet another App Store? Is the market of people who use Apple Mail because they don’t know how to register a Gmail account large and profitable enough for them to justify the investment?

The problem isn’t just lock in. There are also less games on Stadia. The lack of available games is directly due to Google’s strategy of recreating yet another App Store.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#474

Post by Lopiolis »

danellis wrote: post #144
BurningFrog wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is like a rich guy who switches hobbies. He may have real musical talent, but he'll never put in the blood, sweat & tears for the band to make it big.

Google has ADHD.

Have they tried Ritalin? I hear it helps quite a bit.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#475

Post by hexadec »

echelon wrote: post #210
hexadec wrote: post #3

Insert surprised Pikachu face That aside, I do not think this is a bad move at all. None of the titles they were working on were that appealing, hopefully it will mean they pivot to integrate more into a shared licensing model. I would pay $5 a month to be able to import my current Steam games and play remotely, but this fractured model is incredibly reminiscent of video streaming. We had a first mover (Steam/ Netfli…

> I am curious what the next evolution of this model will look like. Marketplace.

Don't we have a marketplace already? If we take the game example we have Steam, Origin, Epic, and other stores competing to sell games. There are differences in offerings but they all still do a healthy business.

On the streaming video side it is even harder since we never license or pay for videos, just the ability to watch as long as the service persists.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#476

Post by ehsankia »

speby wrote: post #322
rco8786 wrote: post #198

This is totally the right move. I am a (very happy) user of Stadia. If you haven't tried it, you really should...it's an amazing piece of tech. I can find myself with 20-30 minutes worth of downtime during the day, fire up Cyberpunk 2077 or Hitman or Assassin's Creed in moments from my browser *on a macbook* and play at high settings with no noticeable lag. Obviously you need a strong, steady internet connection for…

I am with you. I think the actual use case for a casual gamer is absolutely there, running and playing decent games from many different devices, without having to invest in and own a more expensive PC equipped with higher end internals (graphics, etc.). I am worried about Google's ability to actually execute and make this successful, however (And that does give me hesitancy to buying some of the games that are on the…

They shipped Outcasters and just today Journey to Savage Planet. Admittedly I believe both those games may have been in development before the studios were acquired, but they are both first party exclusive Stadia games.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#477

Post by ahelwer »

delecti wrote: post #409
5d749d7da7d5 wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Titan was the most premium card available and probably not representative of a typical build.

Sure, but it also remains the defining example of "ludicrously expensive graphics card". The card below it, the GTX 780, was $650, which is still more expensive than any current generation consoles. Meanwhile the current top and 2nd tier GeForce cards (3090 and 3080) have MSRPs of $1500 and $700, which are more expensive, but not outrageously so. I just don't think it's accurate to paint a picture of the market from…

MSRP doesn't matter anymore. These cards are so difficult to get that they basically go used for MSRP, and on the secondary market for nearly a multiple of MSRP.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#478

Post by Lopiolis »

rco8786 wrote: post #198

This is totally the right move. I am a (very happy) user of Stadia. If you haven't tried it, you really should...it's an amazing piece of tech. I can find myself with 20-30 minutes worth of downtime during the day, fire up Cyberpunk 2077 or Hitman or Assassin's Creed in moments from my browser *on a macbook* and play at high settings with no noticeable lag. Obviously you need a strong, steady internet connection for…

> This is totally the right move. I am a (very happy) user of Stadia. If you haven't tried it, you really should...it's an amazing piece of tech. I can find myself with 20-30 minutes worth of downtime during the day, fire up Cyberpunk 2077 or Hitman or Assassin's Creed in moments from my browser on a macbook and play at high settings with no noticeable lag.

There's zero chance I'm ever going to give Google any support in trying to take over the gaming industry. The best thing they can do is kill Stadia, considering how anti-consumer it is.

> The company plans to begin offering its Stadia tech to publishers, opening up the possibility for Stadia to become the streaming tech for other video game companies.

This alone scares the fuck out of me.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#479

Post by FridgeSeal »

ehsankia wrote: post #471
FridgeSeal wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obviously you need a strong, steady internet connection for Stadia to shine, but I'd guess that the HN crowd skews towards that. Sad Australian internet noises. > don't want to drop $1k+ on a gaming rig, check out Stadia. Or, or, do buy the gaming rig, because it will still work and you’ll still have the games 3 years after Google inevitably shuts down stadia and you’re left with nothing.

> after Google inevitably shuts down stadia and you’re left with nothing There is literally no way Google shuts down Stadia and doesn't refund people their money and let them export their save files (you can already do the latter). So no, the worst worst case is that you got to play on Stadia for free and if you really want the game again you can use that money to buy it somewhere else.

Like all those people who paid for Google music for years and then when it was killed and replaced with YouTube music lost out because some stuff wasn’t on there, or wasn’t available in their country, etc right?

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#480

Post by variable11 »

maest wrote: post #425
mey wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compare to https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce-now/ and https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass/cloud-gaming Both have their own quirks, but they don't suffer from lack of games.

Man, I'm so salty about GFN - they have a great product and an economic model that makes sense but, for whatever reason, they gave in to publishers' pressure to remove some games from their service. This is doubly upsetting, as publishers should have no say on where I play the games I've already purchased - whether it's on a computer I physically own or on a computer I rent in the cloud.

Incompatible with anti-piracy measures.
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