Stadia died because no one trusts Google • Hacker News Board

Re: Stadia died because no one trusts Google

#231

Post by h0l0cube » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 5:58 AM UTC

narrator wrote: post #204

stingraycharles wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least for Google, I don’t think you can call what they did with search low hanging fruit. Their solution was anything but, and it was truly innovative (at the time) and their success was well deserved. I do agree that they’re victims of their early success, but rather that it proves that it’s rather difficult to make multiple successful products. When you own a whole ecosystem, like Microsoft and Apple do, it make…

Larry and Sergei decided they are not interested in the business anymore. That's probably why Google has failed to innovate much lately. How great would Tesla or SpaceX be without Elon? Companies without the founders become too cautious and status quo oriented.

> Larry and Sergei

This may be part of the problem. Google was founded by algorithm nerds, and that's now part of the DNA of the company. Apple (Tesla/Starlink/etc) was founded upon vision - what could the future look like? How do I make that happen today? - and then, somehow, to pare that back to something that's economically viable in a reasonable time frame.

That said, taking existing problems and trying to better apply algorithms to make a better product is still a thing in AI space though - and even here plenty of start ups are taking the lead.

Re: Stadia died because no one trusts Google

#232

Post by noncoml » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 5:58 AM UTC

zarzavat wrote: post #135

chii wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

stadia would've worked if it didn't charge per title. A subscription, which allowed you access to the entire library of games in stadia, akin to netflix, is a compelling product.

Games require a lot of upfront investment. Games are not like music where top hits are routinely created in a day or two. Nobody is making a game on the off-chance that they will collect enough pennies from plays on a streaming service. Anybody making a game, be it indie or AAA, is investing years and $$$, and they need that big payday on release. Even Netflix mostly funds their own content. A “Netflix for games” wou…

MS does it on Xbox. Not just released games, but they have a decent collection.

Re: Stadia died because no one trusts Google

#233

Post by rippercushions » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 6:03 AM UTC

shakna wrote: post #105

skybrian wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The announcement seems sudden but actually it's with about three months notice. It does seem a little short, but how much would it help to drag it out further? How much time do you want to spend on a project that's shutting down?

There were games preparing to launch on November 1st. Those should never have been approved, if the thing was shutting down. In those cases, it's normal to stop making approvals for new games, for anything expected to finish within six months of your termination date. You don't necessarily need to make an announcement yet, but you shouldn't have anyone expecting a launch when the service is dead or dying.

Big companies are quite paranoid about leaking shutdowns even internally, because they don't want the press to know, customers to start asking questions, team members leaving, etc etc.

I once casually speculated to a director that product X felt like it was going to get the axe. He was visibly freaked out and responded with a fervent Shakespearean lady-doth-protest-too-much denial, complete with demanding to know where I'd heard this from. Inevitably, it turns out that X's days were already numbered, but he already knew and I didn't.

Re: Stadia died because no one trusts Google

#234

Post by Pelam » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 6:03 AM UTC

Our_Benefactors wrote: post #107

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes you wonder what would happen if companies occasionally did the exact opposite to their engineers. "Oh, you know that 32 GB machine you've got? We're replacing it with this new 16 GB one. If the test suite is too slow on your new machine, I guess you'll just have to make the tests faster."

What would happen is those engineers would rightly be concerned that their leadership had lost their marbles, and would quickly find new jobs elsewhere. These kinds of “fun” thought experiments don’t pan out in the real world.

At least not every engineer. I love using older machines and any chance to make things work in a hardware friendly way.

I have to say, I appreciate the insane expertise browser engine developers have in making JS and layouting run fast.

Re: Stadia died because no one trusts Google

#235

Post by YurgenJurgensen » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 6:04 AM UTC

utopcell wrote: post #196

Hats off to Stadia engineers for the engineering marvel that they created. I'm certain they'll be sought after both internally at Google and externally. Also, hats off to Google for refunding all hardware(!) and software purchases. I don't remember any parallel to this from a large company. Essentially, gamers participated in a wonderful large-scale experiment which cost them nothing (except maybe the occasional mont…

Has any other company been in a position where they'd have to offer refunds though? The combination of a hardware device that relies entirely on an external service and requires "purchases" rather than rentals, and said service being discontinued after only three years and the company in question still being solvent seems like it'd be a black swan.

Re: Stadia died because no one trusts Google

#236

Post by trophycase » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 6:07 AM UTC

a1371 wrote: post #225

I'm sure there are some managers at Google who are patting each other on the back reciting "fail fast fail often" boasting about how much they learned launching Stadia, and looking for the next thing because Google should not be bogged down with things that don't turn the world upside down. I don't think Google should become a maintenance company and I understand what the sunk cost fallacy is but I must ask... Did no…

This. I remember when Stadia came out and then you'd see press from Google backpedalling on their own product. You knew it would die before it even launched so why bother investing money and time into it? Like why should I show commitment into Stadia if Google is already cutting their budget before it launches?

Re: Stadia died because no one trusts Google

#237

Post by cmeacham98 » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 6:07 AM UTC

ndiddy wrote: post #166

brirec wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you streamed Stadia to your web browser, sure, you could use an Xbox controller. The real feature of the Stadia controller was that it connected directly to the Stadia servers to minimize latency (and load on your computer), instead of connecting to your computer using USB or Bluetooth and having your browser relay inputs. You’d initially set the controller up using your phone and Bluetooth to bootstrap a Wi-Fi co…

AFAIK that means that all of those Stadia controllers are ewaste now unless Google releases a firmware update that allows them to be paired as Bluetooth.

You can use them as a wired controller with the existing firmware (although I agree it would be ideal if Google released an update adding bluetooth functionality as well).

Re: Stadia died because no one trusts Google

#238

Post by ffggvv » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 6:09 AM UTC

dehrmann wrote: post #157

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cloud is bigger than Azure. "Azure" includes Office 365 so MSFT can pretend Azure is 3x bigger than it is: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.techtarget.com/searchcloudc...

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=... I wonder how good of a proxy this is for actual use. I trust Google's numbers (unless Azure users are all using Bing), so I read this was AWS is by far the leader, with GCP possibly being second.

azure calls it a portal, not a console. if i replace that terminology it’s a totally different picture

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...

Re: Stadia died because no one trusts Google

#239

Post by NathanielK » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 6:09 AM UTC

ndiddy wrote: post #166

brirec wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you streamed Stadia to your web browser, sure, you could use an Xbox controller. The real feature of the Stadia controller was that it connected directly to the Stadia servers to minimize latency (and load on your computer), instead of connecting to your computer using USB or Bluetooth and having your browser relay inputs. You’d initially set the controller up using your phone and Bluetooth to bootstrap a Wi-Fi co…

AFAIK that means that all of those Stadia controllers are ewaste now unless Google releases a firmware update that allows them to be paired as Bluetooth.

They have USB-C ports. You can always just plug them in and use them as wired controllers.

Re: Stadia died because no one trusts Google

#240

Post by calderwoodra » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 6:10 AM UTC

cududa wrote: post #44

Dalewyn wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a specific example of latency incompetency that immediately came to mind while reading this: Chrome. Chrome will not run properly on first execution, as in ran for the first time after a cold start of the computer, when executed off a HDD. Why? Because the HDD takes too long to read off data. Chrome expects SSD latency and fuck your computer if it's not residing on one. When executed off a HDD, I've found Chrome…

Made some offhanded comment about Chrome perf on Twitter earlier this year and a Google friend replied something like "Well, pretty much the whole Chrome team just got upgraded to local test machines with at least 32gb of RAM. Godspeed everyone."

32gb is hilariously low for Google, my machine has 196gb of ram.