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

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#331

Post by srmarm » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:52 PM UTC

staticassertion wrote: post #246

srmarm wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If google were going out of business I'd agree with you, but they're not. As a business they have plenty of money. What they're (possibly) doing is shutting this service to save some money. I suspect they'll refund or at least credit the relatively small number of people who purchased games on the service. It was always an odd setup to sell something for a fixed fee that potentially has an endless cost to deliver. Go…

I doubt they'll credit anyone. Why would they? You purchased a license to play a game through their service. Their service is no longer there. I haven't gone through any terms of service for Stadia but I can't imagine that they aren't covered for this.

They can put what they want in the TOS but they are selling to consumers in jurisdictions around the world and if it stops working so soon then they were clearly 'selling' something that wasn't fit for purpose. They could have sold it time limited or laid out their limitations if they wanted to protect themselves but they didn't.

I used the service and as a techie knew it wasn't really sustainable but the average consumer buying in good faith wasn't warned that their purchase might be so short lived. Might have been hidden in the TOS but that won't cut the mustard in many jurisdictions and will be an expensive battle.

I suspect they made a small amount of sales and it'll be cheaper and easier for them to credit than fight.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#332

Post by jfim » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:53 PM UTC

ctvo wrote: post #252

Qahlel wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Go…

I'd phrase it differently.

Google got lucky in the sense that they set out to build a search engine, someone said "hey why don't we do text ads," it made money, and they've been riding that ever since. They're the kind of company that drilled a few holes, found oil once, and is now drilling holes everywhere without understanding where oil comes from.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#333

Post by rand0mx1 » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:54 PM UTC

clessg wrote: post #107

londons_explore wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

maybe on twitter

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#334

Post by cptskippy » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:54 PM UTC

lelandfe wrote: post #298

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.

> Q: If the Stadia service is discontinued, do we know what (if anything) will happen with game purchases? > Andrey Doronichev, then Stadia Director of Product: > We get this a lot. I hear you. Moving to the cloud is scary. I felt the same way when music was transitioning from files to streaming. I still have all my old CDs in the garage… although it's hard to find a CD player these days :) > The same happened to Mov…

He's not wrong. All my games are in the cloud and it is great; it's just not Google's cloud.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#335

Post by harha » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:55 PM UTC

roody15 wrote: post #293

harha wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only plays out if you offer anything to customers once the competitors are gone. Also: there’s still PlayStation, Xbox and even Apple Arcade doing perfectly fine in this space

Is Apple Arcade doing fine? In my small world I don’t know a single person who uses it.

Looks like overall Apple subscriptions have solid growth. [0]

I use it after I got bored of Netflix and other programs, because it’s ad and in-app purchase free and loads quickly on all devices. The games are obviously not the best, but then again the PS4 games I have don’t really justify the long start up time and I don’t have enough spare hours for Civilization.

[0]: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/07/28/apple-860-million-paid-...

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#336

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:56 PM UTC

kmeisthax wrote: post #280

mywittyname wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They almost certainly can't. If I remember correctly the "we can just release an unlock patch" comment was back when Steam was just that really annoying thing Valve forced you install to play Counter-Strike. The moment they started including third-party games was the moment that no longer became available. DMCA 1201 is very very clear that you cannot unlock other people's games for any reason, even a legal one.

[deleted]

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#337

Post by mschuster91 » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:56 PM UTC

napolux wrote: post #286

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…

> 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. I can't really understand how people can trust google domains.

Domains are transferrable. If a registrar goes belly-up you can always and easily transfer the domains out to a new registrar, and if the old registrar doesn't want to release the domain the TLD registry can and will intervene on your side.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#338

Post by rcfox » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:57 PM UTC

I have no love for Stadia, but it seems irresponsible to pass rumours off as journalism. A website dedicated to tracking dead Google projects is now trying to torpedo a struggling project.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#339

Post by MichaelCollins » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:58 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #224

Havoc wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>People believing a baseless rumor so easily is sad. There is an incredibly long list of precedents: https://killedbygoogle.com Scroll through that and once you get to the bottom tell me people are still being unreasonable... I am glad to hear (anonymous) confirmation that it isn't getting killed though.

That list is irrelevant. Even if Google had never killed a product before, it would be worth believing if there is solid evidence. Here, there is none.

> That list is irrelevant.

You said the rumor is baseless, but that list is a rock solid foundation for any rumor of Google cancelling anything.

Re: Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down

#340

Post by gambiting » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:59 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.

>>His point is highlighting that even if you pay for it you don’t actually own the game

In the EU at least, you absolutely own the copy and are free to do with it as you please though, including making more copies for your own safekeeping. There are other comments in this thread pointing out that even in US with its crazy laws you also have this right, although I cannot comment on that personally.