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Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

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Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#101

Post by Lutger »

wrayjustin wrote: post #46
petercooper wrote: post #6

I avoided checking Stadia out in the first place as I thought they'd end up shutting it down after prior experiences. This seems a difficult branding loop to break, but does them no favors.

It really doesn't! The common responses you hear in these types of threads include "I didn't even try it; because I knew it would get killed." And of course, this results in lower turnout, and eventual death of the offering. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point. So what's Google to even do? * They could burn money and keep the offering afloat to "prove" they are serious (seems to be the case with Stadia). *…

Google seems to shut down services mostly on the basis of adoption being too low. For its scale, tens of millions of users could mean a failure.

However, those services could be profitable, just at a smaller scale. They could keep them around and exploit them without too much investments. This is what other large companies do, they won't break the experience for their customers because they value them.

Google has another approach.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#102

Post by Ken_At_EM »

tokai wrote: post #76
FVYPblNGl7R9ZAc wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is how all of this works. If Valve went out of business then you wouldn't have any legal right or way to get the games you purchased on Steam. If Amazon shut down Prime Video then you couldn't watch the movies you purchased on it. This is not a unique problem to Google Stadia.

You would still have your games files and be able to run them. Steam is not a rental or streaming service.

Yes but if Steam shut down you’d have no way to get to the installers again and you’d be left crossing your fingers the machine you installed them on doesn’t die.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#103

Post by gjsman-1000 »

tokai wrote: post #76
FVYPblNGl7R9ZAc wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is how all of this works. If Valve went out of business then you wouldn't have any legal right or way to get the games you purchased on Steam. If Amazon shut down Prime Video then you couldn't watch the movies you purchased on it. This is not a unique problem to Google Stadia.

You would still have your games files and be able to run them. Steam is not a rental or streaming service.

Not very much - many of those game files actually have Steam Runtime or Steam executables blended in. It is not a strong DRM - but you are still going to need to look for cracked copies if Steam went down.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#104

Post by NikolaNovak »

tokai wrote: post #76
FVYPblNGl7R9ZAc wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is how all of this works. If Valve went out of business then you wouldn't have any legal right or way to get the games you purchased on Steam. If Amazon shut down Prime Video then you couldn't watch the movies you purchased on it. This is not a unique problem to Google Stadia.

You would still have your games files and be able to run them. Steam is not a rental or streaming service.

That's how GoG works.

That's not how steam works on its own. Steam explicitly a service where you buy a defined and limited license for permission to execute the files through proprietary framework that might one day disappear.

Don't get me wrong, steam is my preferred digital delivery platform and where I play majority of my games. But I am under no illusion that gives me any sort of permanence (without potential hacking and mods). If I want permanence I get a DRM free downloadable game from GoG.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#105

Post by 999900000999 »

Ken_At_EM wrote: post #24
thesuperbigfrog wrote: post #15

"there'd be no license transfer of any sort, which means that any purchases made on Stadia would effectively be nullified as the service closes down." It lasted less than three years and will leave players with nothing to show. This is what people were predicting when Stadia lauched and part of the reason why it had poor adoption.

It is highly unethical to take away copies of the game that players had to pay full price for. Stadia owes them a retail copy of the games they purchased.

I strongly suspect just to avoid backlash they'll refund people.

But technically when you buy a game you're not really buying a game anymore, there's no physical item purchased.

You're merely purchasing a temporary non-transferable license to use it.

Back in the '90s if I gave you a Game boy game, it now belonged to you. I guess if I started a company renting them out Nintendo could sue me for copyright infringement though.

Now when I download a game, I'm merely permitted temporary usage. I can't give it to you

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#106

Post by GNOMES »

I really hope if true that Google unlocks the bluetooth on the controllers.

Claimed a free Chromecast/controller with my YT Music subscription.

Games played fine (to my surprise) on my network (1GB down, 40 up Xfinity), but I have other ways to play games. Really only claimed it for an extra Chromecast Ultra...

I found the controller pretty good quality, and would like to have it for bluetooth gaming on PC and mobile, but I have read that the bluetooth is deactivated after initial setup.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#107

Post by clessg »

londons_explore wrote: post #41
Ken_At_EM wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is highly unethical to take away copies of the game that players had to pay full price for. Stadia owes them a retail copy of the games they purchased.

I suspect they'll just refund all users that complain. Adoption of stadia was sufficiently small that Google will pay the full refund cost just to prevent PR damage or lawsuit losses (and take the loss themselves, because the game developer isn't going to want to give a refund).

> I suspect they'll just refund all users that complain.

Problem is, it's Google. Who are you going to complain to, and where? You'll be lucky if there's even a way to submit a complaint, much less one that gets read by a human. I suppose you could use the good old Tell HN technique!

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#108

Post by CaptainZapp »

OrangeMonkey wrote: post #30
CSMastermind wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Admittedly, google stadia was kind of a joke since the beginning I don't see anything wrong with the premise of the service or even from what I understand the technical execution. Seems like the failure was around business development, marketing, community management, and brand reputation. I haven't followed to closely though so other would know better than me.

The technical side was initially plagued by lag in games that were ill suited for it but this has consistently approved. I think the real failing is what you stated - biz dev and brand reputation. Read the other replies and you will see folks say "There were no games" or "The selection was limited." Why in the world would a major game company hesitate to invest in google and google services? Well, if you have a reput…

> Google can fix their reputation but its going to take a lot of work.

To regain trust with enterprise customers (that's where the money is) it would take at least a decade of cleaning up their act very thoroughly.

I remember a poster proudly announcing that they will announce one year in advance when they plan to shut down a service on GCS.

Maybe they should look what happens when a company like HP announces end of support for OpenVMS 5 - 10 years in advance (as just an example pulled out of my ass with some Wikipedia backing the statement up) there's a lot of wailing and howling amongst their enterprise customers.

Those are the timescales big shops think in when it comes to their strategic IT decisions.

Frankly, I don't see Google ever satisfying such requirements backed by iron clad guarantees.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#109

Post by NikolaNovak »

drexlspivey wrote: post #84
thesuperbigfrog wrote: post #15

"there'd be no license transfer of any sort, which means that any purchases made on Stadia would effectively be nullified as the service closes down." It lasted less than three years and will leave players with nothing to show. This is what people were predicting when Stadia lauched and part of the reason why it had poor adoption.

That’s why I used Geforce Now instead where you don’t have to buy the game again if it’s in your steam library. I hope game devs will release all Stadia exclusives to GFN after this change because the library is a bit lacking.

Exactly. The value proposition, for me, of geforce now vs stadia is completely different. Plus I can play games both offline and stream through geforce now.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#110

Post by SahAssar »

fatjokes wrote: post #25

It was a perfectly sensible strategic bet. 5G = easy streaming everything everywhere Their mistake was assuming the American telecoms would actually deliver real 5G in any reasonable amount of time. Maybe they should've tested it in the Korean market.

Even on low-latency fiber connections it was laggy. 5G wouldn't have changed the situation much.
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