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Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by FridgeSeal on Monday February 01, 2021 @05:35PM (#25995074)
> Obviously you need a strong, steady internet connection for Stadia to shine, but I'd guess that the HN crowd skews towards that.

Sad Australian internet noises.

> don't want to drop $1k+ on a gaming rig, check out Stadia.

Or, or, do buy the gaming rig, because it will still work and you’ll still have the games 3 years after Google inevitably shuts down stadia and you’re left with nothing.

Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by rco8786 on Monday February 01, 2021 @05:41PM (#25995129)
The amount of times in my life that I've gone back to play an old game I've already played is like...three. I'm not a curator or collector, I just want to play some games here and there.

If owning games forever is important for you, then buy the hardcopy. For me, being able to play games now on the devices I already own is a huge win.

Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by lutte on Monday February 01, 2021 @08:56PM (#25996638)
>I'm not a curator or collector,

I guess people who play chess or soccer are "curators" and "collectors" considering how old those "game" concepts are?

Some people may only see video games as a replacement for popcorn movies, a vapid session of watching characters talk about meaningless things and occasionally press a button or two as an illusion of interactivity with something.

But some of us get attached when there's something actually -good- out of it and time memorable beyond the technology used to build it. Thoughtful set of rules that allow a person to either challenge themselves or others. Some of us will always continue to play Starcraft, Counter Strike, Street Fighter or arcade shmups. They don't need a "revision" much like Chess doesn't need to be modified into a game that isn't Chess and soccer doesn't need to become handegg.

Stadia is to gaming what MTV is to music.

Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by rco8786 on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @08:30AM (#26000713)
Yes. That’s great for you and people like you.

Please let others enjoy games the way they like to, also.

Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by AWildC182 on Monday February 01, 2021 @06:27PM (#25995565)
That opinion is going to vary drastically from person to person.

I mostly play the same three or four games and have for about a decade. Stuff like KSP and ARMA where save state and modding are extremely important.

Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by chillfox on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @02:14AM (#25998157)
You don't need to be a collector to keep old games around. You just need to get some favorites.

I keep going back to these games:

- Knights of the Old Republic (2003)

- Jade Empire (2005)

- Shadow of the Colossus (2005)

- Game Dev Tycoon (2012)

- Long Live The Queen (2012)

- Banished (2014)

Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by root_axis on Monday February 01, 2021 @07:38PM (#25996105)
You're a tiny minority among the people who spend money on games. Every single gamer I have ever known has at least a few high replay value games that they come back to every few years or games that they don't finish and revisit later. Beyond that, it's not about "owning games forever" it's about owning what you purchase on your own terms not on the basis of a capricious corporation's disposable business model.
Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by vanadium on Monday February 01, 2021 @09:56PM (#25996976)
And, importantly, I can resell the hardware and recoup a significant amount of my base costs when a new generation of hardware comes out.
Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by rco8786 on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @09:38AM (#26001409)
> You're a tiny minority among the people who spend money on games.

Source?

Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by lutte on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @01:37PM (#26004766)
Literally every single statistics out there on game ownership. In fact among high spenders there's a troubling statistics showing a lot of people buy games yet never even launch them :

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/04/17/nearly-37-o...

>Nearly 37% Of All Registered Steam Games Have Never Been Played

Steam's most played games list tend to change very slowly over time, with a few slots occasionally taken by mediocre "throw away" titles that people consume once and then forget after a few months : https://store.steampowered.com/stats/ In the current month's list, almost all the games most launched on steam are games that are old and have high replay value. Counter Strike, Dota, PUBG, GTA5, PoE, Rocket League.

Outside of steam, one of the most played game of the world is League of Legends. It currently has a 115 million monthly player count, and a 50 millions peak daily logins. Yes, that little competitive PC game has seen more people playing it than the playstation 4 has seen buyers in its lifetime.

The best selling game console by the way only ever saw a few of its titles ever reaching a large player base : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Wii_video.... This is known as the Wii's tragedy. The best selling console in the world, but games barely ever sold on it, with people mostly sticking to a few Nintendo's first party games. You could say it's a tiny subgroup that kept financing literally every other games on the platform.

People tend to stick to a few game they consider worth their value and replay them. The people who keep buying new things over and over at $60+ and forget about them after they're ""done"" are a minority among gamers. They're a very attractive archetype for game developers as they tend to be a failsafe for when their games just can't appeal beyond very superficial characteristics but they're not the majority of gamers by far. Most games sold on the market don't sell that many millions and it's always the same group who keeps buying the new shiny thing. The average AAA game tries hard to become an experience akin to movies with their many cutscenes, dialogue and visuals because devs are trying to get the attention of that guy who just keeps buying new shit over and over and throws it away once done.

And that's without counting "casual" type of gamers who also tend to focus on their one or two game and forget about the rest. Of the casuals, the wealthier types who are willing to spend irrationally are what every single mobile game developers wish they had, because the ''whale'' archetype will spend countless grands on just the one game they always play. All the ""free"" video games that have paid for options rely on these people who show extreme loyalty toward the one game. The modern incarnation of Counter Strike subsists from people willing to keep spending insane money just to get a skin that says that they spent hundreds or grands on something that doesn't even give them a competitive advantage.

Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by rco8786 on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:02PM (#26007491)
I'm not sure you're making the point you're trying to make. My point was that I very rarely come back to a game to replay it. 37% of games going unplayed on Steam is orthogonal to that point, at best.
Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by ehsankia on Monday February 01, 2021 @07:43PM (#25996158)
> after Google inevitably shuts down stadia and you’re left with nothing

There is literally no way Google shuts down Stadia and doesn't refund people their money and let them export their save files (you can already do the latter). So no, the worst worst case is that you got to play on Stadia for free and if you really want the game again you can use that money to buy it somewhere else.

Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by FridgeSeal on Monday February 01, 2021 @07:47PM (#25996185)
Like all those people who paid for Google music for years and then when it was killed and replaced with YouTube music lost out because some stuff wasn’t on there, or wasn’t available in their country, etc right?
Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by ehsankia on Monday February 01, 2021 @07:57PM (#25996260)
All my purchased music was properly transferred to YTM, and the analogy isn't quite 1:1 since I can download the mp3s I bought too and store them on my computer. There may have been some cases where specific songs licenses weren't available (I'd like to see the percentage), though the help page says that once they get the license, the song will re-appear in your library too. Over the past year I have found their licensing has gotten better and I run much less into missing albums anymore.
Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by Kiro on Monday February 01, 2021 @08:04PM (#25996313)
Did they actually remove purchased tracks? Or just couldn't stream the same songs? You buy the games on Stadia so the comparison only works if it is the former.
Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by ehsankia on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @03:15PM (#26006000)
I believe you can still download the mp3, just can't stream it since they don't have the streaming licences, though they have been re-acquiring a lot of licenses over the past year for YTM.
Re:Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing busin... by ncr100 on Monday February 01, 2021 @06:14PM (#25995450)
> Sad Australian internet noises.

( Didgeridont? BTW amazing stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG9ZX1FS20A )

Self-owned gaming rig also nets you backwards compatibility.

I have used Stadia and have been impressed by its relatively seamless "drop in and play" capability.