Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down • Hacker News Board

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#251

Post by OskarS » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:17 PM UTC

MichaelCollins wrote: post #236

OskarS wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that they're gonna. Google is starting to get a reputation for this, and this would be an ESPECIALLY egregious example. Nobody would ever buy a digital good from them again if they didn't do some version of this (lots of people are skittish about it already, but this would make it so much worse). I don't think it's "trivial" though. They probably have to do some negotiation with both Steam as well as each…

I think Google already has a reputation for shutting things down prematurely, not just on HN but with consumers more generally. And I think that reputation is a big part of the reason why Stadia flopped. People knew this would happen so they never bought in, causing this to happen. A sort of self-fulfilling prophesy, but this outcome was very obvious from the start.

Yeah, but they don't have to make it worse! If they do the right thing here and transfer the licenses somehow, it's way more likely that whatever their next thing is is going to go down smoother. If they don't do the right thing here, they're never going to be able to launch anything like it ever again. That must carry some weight. You'd hope, at least.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#252

Post by ctvo » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:17 PM UTC

Qahlel wrote: post #219

Workaccount2 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I don't sign on to anything new google does for a few years now. It's going to be buggy but promising initially, then be poorly supported, and then be cancelled leaving you high and dry. If I was a large shareholder I'd be yelling to ditch Sundar everyday. The guy is a total idiot just floating by on ads dollars. Google could be so much more if they reorganized into conventional dedicated teams and stoppe…

Actually, this strategy works for google. Google enters these markets and then kills it for any possible future competitors. In the short run, it's a loss, in the long run, you nullify new possible competitors.

> Actually, this strategy works for google. Google enters these markets and then kills it for any possible future competitors. In the short run, it's a loss, in the long run, you nullify new possible competitors.

They're no longer in the market. Now others are also slow to enter the market, in this case video game streaming as a service, and it's good for Google? This new product market isn't a core competency for Google and only tangentially fits into their wider portfolio. This 5D chess is quite the take.

How about this instead? Google isn't a great product company. The work of making a product good isn't the same as the work of solving the engineering challenges to launch a product. Google overwhelmingly enjoys and excels at the latter, not the constant iteration and polish and listening to stakeholders of the former.

Edit:

To expand on this a little. Stadia no doubt received a lot of buyin internally from engineers because of the technical challenges. Keeping latency low, potentially hardware level challenges to running / rendering the games at scale and optimizing for costs, etc. I bet many promotions were given for the various contributions.

Now that it's launched, the not so fun work that won't get much recognition due to Google's culture, but is important:

- Iterate on the user experience

- Iterate on performance: latency, frame rates, streaming quality. Potentially add support for higher resolutions, etc..

- Fix bugs, keep it running

- Work with video game publishers, large and small, on licensing agreements. Since Stadia only has a small market share, Google has to go to them. This isn't a position Google likes to be in.

- Work with video game developers on the SDK or other technical challenges. Answer their questions. Get their buyin. Support them during development. This isn't a position Google likes to be in.

The last two points are interesting. When was the last time, outside of an acquisition (YouTube, Android both acquired), Google actually built a successful platform? This is what Stadia needed to be.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#253

Post by branon » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:17 PM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #185

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.

I believe Valve has promised to unlock all games purchased through their platform in the event that they go out of business. Whether they stick to that is another story, but it should happen for at least some games. They've been operating Steam for 20 years now. So the company has staying power. Plus, the most likely thing to happen to Valve is a MS acquisition.

I hope Valve isn't acquired by Microsoft. Gabe left Microsoft to found Valve so as long as he's around I can't ever see that happening.

Is it known who will helm Valve if Gabe decides to leave? Plagman has been a big name there with the recent SteamOS platform development but I'm not sure who the actual second-in-command would be.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#254

Post by MichaelCollins » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:17 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #212

MichaelCollins wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have to download a pirate's crack to play a game, you may as well download a pirate version of the game in the first place. I don't see much substantial difference between these two scenarios. Steam is a DRM system with good branding, that gamers treat as special because it comes from Valve. Anecdotally, a lot of gamers believe and trust that Valve would free their games of DRM if Valve ever went out of busine…

>>I don't see much substantial difference between these two scenarios. In one you paid for the product, in other you didn't. I'd think that's a pretty substantial difference?

The two scenarios I'm comparing (and finding not much difference between) are:

> You "buy" the game from Stadia, it's taken from you, so now you pirate the game.

> You "buy" the game from Steam, it's taken from you, so now you download the pirate's crack to the game.

In either case, the original developer received compensation so I don't think you should feel any moral obligations to anybody. Morally they're equivalent, the only real difference is whether you have the gamefiles already downloaded or not. In both cases you need to dip into the shadier side of the net to get the game you "bought" to run.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#255

Post by maxehmookau » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:17 PM UTC

I love Stadia. I use it every day but I have spent a lot of money on games. To lose access to them with no recourse after barely a year of use will leave a _nasty_ taste in my mouth.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#256

Post by xxs » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:17 PM UTC

MauranKilom wrote: post #218

xxs wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can buy a decent system that runs the games better than stadia under $1k. you need 6600xt ($330), 16MB ram ($50), virtually any cpu ($150), motherboard $120, SSD - $80. That leaves you >250 for case, keyboard and mouse.

> 16MB ram ($50) An amusing typo :)

true that

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#257

Post by tootie » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:18 PM UTC

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.

Google is actually reviving a product they had left fallow for like 10 years. They acquired Feedburner like 15 years ago and stopped updating it almost immediately, but the other day it suddenly had Material UI applied.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#258

Post by giraffe_lady » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:18 PM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #216

giraffe_lady wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not the person you asked but I've used stadia as my main gaming "platform" over the last couple years. That they were going to shut it down was obvious from the beginning, people in here bragging about that prediction are fools. It's still by far the best game streaming setup for what I want. I spent about $100 figuring I'd get a year or two out of it and it would be worth it for that. It was. If it continues thr…

Have you tried Nvidia's streaming service? I think it's called GeForce Now.

Yes I've tried them all I think.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#259

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:18 PM UTC

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.

I think it is a valuable lesson for me ( and a loss ).

I got Cyberpunk on it ( at the time rationale was, I don't want to build a new PC so this is an acceptable trade-off ). Google name lent it some credibility and, admittedly, it was actually pretty impressive from technology point of view. It does help that the game was buggy as hell and made me lose interest early on.

That said, the fact that they are treating paying users this way makes stare in disbelief. How can they possibly get away with it? And, more importantly, the question quickly becomes 'to what extent ca I trust other platforms?'.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#260

Post by staticassertion » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:19 PM UTC

justanorherhack wrote: post #229

gambiting wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I don't see much substantial difference between these two scenarios. In one you paid for the product, in other you didn't. I'd think that's a pretty substantial difference?

His point is highlighting that even if you pay for it you don’t actually own the game. In this weird market you only own the game if you pirate it. Ip laws are the worst and terrible for the market. Especially the media companies that just recharge you for for the same content just to watch it on a different medium.

> In this weird market you only own the game if you pirate it.

That's a really good way of putting it, I'm gonna steal that (irony unintended). It's totally true - when you purchase software or services it's conditional. You have some voucher that can be redeemed at the discretion of the provider, and there are always many ways (EULA violation, company goes away) that the voucher can be negated.

But when you steal something you aren't beholden to anyone. You actually "own" that piece of software in a way more concrete way. Yes, someone could pursue legal charges and force you to remove it, but it's a totally separate system vs the built-in contract between customer/ service.