Go into gaming related subreddits, even for beloved and succesfull games and products - and marvel at the toxicity and negativity you'll likely see all over the place.

Game reddits (and other forums) are legendarily toxic.

People have said exactly the same thing about:

1) software as a service

2) streaming music

3) streaming video

4) digital games

There just isn't enough people caring about physically owning something these days.

People (mostly) already don't physically own games on PC. Steam can in theory shut right down and most people's games would just be gone.

the games would be patched to ignore the steam check, or the steam API emulated to bypass it entirely

and since most games use the same steam stub this would be a pretty easy thing to do

People viewing gaming subreddits most likely already own a console or gaming PC and aren't the target audience for Stadia. Google's aim is to open up gaming to new markets of people who only have low end PCs, laptops or mobile devices.

But those people certainly do not fit the mold: > Gamers are the craziest of early adopters and tech enthusiasts.

Those are the herds we all profit from. Not whales but cows. Why would I want to be on the bleeding edge and get a shit experience?