When will Google shut down Stadia?

Re:When will Google shut down Stadia? by baq on Thursday November 21, 2019 @01:07PM (#21597259)

if you think about it, it isn't that much different from steam, there's an offline mode there and gabe promised a way out if they ever go out of business, but the concern isn't completely remediated by either. the only sure way to have your games working in the future is - unsurprisingly and unfortunately - to crack your copies.

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Re:When will Google shut down Stadia? by zerocrates on Thursday November 21, 2019 @01:29PM (#21597566)

Yes, I was going to mention Steam, but decided not to. Frankly I don't put a whole lot of stock in the assurances of an "escape hatch," I'm not really sure that such a thing is possible to reliably promise.

The better "guarantee" on that end is the knowledge that Steam makes Valve lots and lots of money so they'll probably want to keep it running. The fact that you do have some sort of local copy and cracking would be an option if it came to it is some comfort also, though that's not really a solution that scales to the size of peoples' massive Steam libraries. There's also of course DRM-free stores like GOG as an alternative.

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Re:When will Google shut down Stadia? by WorldMaker on Thursday November 21, 2019 @01:38PM (#21597678)

For better and worse Valve is essentially the Steam company now, and they know that's where their bread is buttered. Google isn't going to become "the Stadia company", in the current revenue model they are never going to see a point where they make more revenue from Stadia than any other service they offer.

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Re:When will Google shut down Stadia? by dwheeler on Thursday November 21, 2019 @03:24PM (#21599145)

There are fundamental differences between Stadia and Steam:

1. If Steam shuts down, Valve shuts down. If Stadia shuts down... Google is doing just fine.

2. What Stadia is attempting to do is much more technically challenging, and I've yet to see a strong reason people would want it. Steam fills a clear and unambiguous need, and does not depend on near-magic technology to work.

3. Steam works, right now, and is reliable. Stadia? It's unlikely to ever be reliable for many users. Maybe it will be, but that remains to be seen.

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