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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

#171

Post by macspoofing »

Larrikin wrote: post #18

"The source also claims that 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." There clearly needs to be a law to make such things illegal. I've refused to take the discount on digital Switch games since Nintendo has clearly shown they are willing to shut down old servers and tell you to just buy your games again. But…

>There clearly needs to be a law to make such things illegal. I've refused to take the discount on digital Switch games since Nintendo has clearly shown they are willing to shut down old servers and tell you to just buy your games again.

The problem is that there really isn't a way to legislate it. The content is tied to the service (either the platform service like the Switch, or the game service itself), and if the servers aren't running, you're done. No backup is going to help you. And there's piracy. I do not see any governments creating legislating to force publishers (or platform (e.g. Steam) or console manufacturers) to remove anti-piracy measures.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#172

Post by josefx »

sithadmin wrote: post #32
OrangeMonkey wrote: post #2

Three sure bets in life: * Death * Taxes * Google shutting down services Admittedly, google stadia was kind of a joke since the beginning, but I feel for consumers who buy into googles promises and even a bit for the google engineers who may be out of work soon.

I wouldn't call Stadia a joke. It does in fact work quite well. But it's not really positioned to compete with the other first-party console alternatives, nor does it have compelling features that make it a better choice than products let you DIY an experience (e.g. Parsec + self-hosted gaming rig, Steam Remote Play, GeForce Now, GPU-accelerated VDI as a service like Shadow...). For a while Google was literally givin…

> I wouldn't call Stadia a joke

What kind of gaming platform randomly bans high profile game devs. because an automated Youtube bot told them to? A bad joke of one.

> It does in fact work quite well.

Didn't they fake high res video streams by up scaling bad renders? Haven't used it but as far as I understand there was quite a bit of overpromising and underdelivering going on.

> other first-party console alternatives,

Their competition would be GeForce Now from NVIDIA. Which not only is still a thing but also predates Stadia by several years.

> agreed that it was a good experience...and then pretty much never touched it again.

So did the free trial run out? Where the games crap? Have you ever asked them why they decided that it wasn't worth using?

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#173

Post by flohofwoe »

tokai wrote: post #135
NikolaNovak wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ha…

>Steam explicitly a service where you buy a defined and limited license for permission Simply not true. There is really no arguments here. You can run most games directly from the game files without steam. In the cases were you can't you would have issues with DRM in all other venues of purchase.

It may look like that from the outside because you can go to the Steam library directory and double click a game executable directly, but this will still start the Steam runtime and do a DRM check. You can run a game in 'offline mode' for up to two weeks before another online DRM check is required though.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#174

Post by wrayjustin »

Sebb767 wrote: post #74
wrayjustin wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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). *…

What should the consumer to do? Donate their money and time to the service in the hope that this time will be different? (not to mention that Stadias pricing was pretty bad) So yes, it's Google's turn to show commitment and keep their services running. Plus, the possible loss with keeping Stadia up should also be weighted against this cementing their reputation.

> So yes, it's Google's turn to show commitment and keep their services running. Plus, the possible loss with keeping Stadia up should also be weighted against this cementing their reputation.

Agreed. The ball is in Google's court. Consumers should (and clearly do) cast a vote of "no confidence" with their wallet.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#175

Post by xen2xen1 »

Ken_At_EM wrote: post #102
tokai wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hacks already exist to make the games not check the servers, and only stop working after new Steam updates. If Steam were to never update again it seems likely the hacked dlls would work forever.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#176

Post by delecti »

xen2xen1 wrote: post #162
delecti wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many/most Steam games use Steam servers to authenticate ownership. It's a store, but it's also a DRM provider. Many games would require cracking to keep working.

Or a single last update from the servers that made every server check come back legit.

That's always just been a wishful statement of intent with no legal backing. Valve might be unable or unwilling to actually follow through on that urban legend if they do ever shut down for some reason.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#177

Post by Karunamon »

tokai wrote: post #142
delecti wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many/most Steam games use Steam servers to authenticate ownership. It's a store, but it's also a DRM provider. Many games would require cracking to keep working.

>most Steam games use Steam servers to authenticate ownership Not true. Maybe if you mainly play ubisoft tiles.

Any game using Steamworks behaves this way, which is a pretty massive chunk of them. Ubisoft uses their own DRM which is an entirely different system.

I think what you may be saying is the behavior if you open a Steamworks game while Steam is opened, it just executes as normal. Any authentication or nonsense happens in the background. Try opening a Steamworks game with steam closed, it will force steam to open and login before the game can be played.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#178

Post by hbn »

TurkTurkleton wrote: post #131
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.

In addition to what everyone else who has replied said, Valve (or at least a support rep, so this doesn't carry as much weight as Gabe Newell himself saying it, but it was at least someone speaking in an official capacity) has said that in the event that the Steam service has to be discontinued, "measures are in place to ensure that that all users continue to have access to their Steam games".

At least I can rest assured that pretty much anything that's been put on Steam has a cracked version out there, and if one day Valve disappears and I lose my entire library, I'll just go pirate whatever I want to play again.

Good luck doing that for a game that consumers were only ever sent frames of. If/when there's a streaming-exclusive game, it'll be conclusively lost to time when the company stops letting people play it.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#179

Post by Karunamon »

RGamma wrote: post #121
tokai wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Steam DRM might not easily allow this, although I trust in Valve's ethics to permit offline play if shit hits the fan. In fact I remember reading from a community representative that there are plans for this in place (not the best source but whatever https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/18mzcn/i_asked_steam... )

It also helps that Steamworks DRM is trivially bypassed. All it takes are a couple of replacement DLL files in the games directory and it runs normally (minus multiplayer support, of course).

This isn't even a sketchy crack thing, it's an open source tool. Look up Goldberg emulator.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#180

Post by gilrain »

hnburnsy wrote: post #152

From @GoogleStadia... https://twitter.com/GoogleStadia/status/1552989433590214656?... "Replying to @BlueFireDemon44 Stadia is not shutting down. Rest assured we're always working on bringing more great games to the platform and Stadia Pro. Let us know if you have other questions."

Marketing says not to worry about a negative rumor? Well, case closed!
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