Thursday, September 29th 2022
Google Calls it Quits on Game Streaming, Shutting Down Stadia
Game streaming services, such as GeForce Now, Stadia and Amazon's Luna, haven't been the roaring success the companies behind them had hoped for. One of the pitfalls, that NVIDIA quickly found out, was that the game publishers weren't overly keen on gamers being able to play games they already owned on multiple systems, even if it wasn't on more than one system at once. Multiple services have already come and gone over the years and now it's time for Google to bid farewell to its Stadia service. In its blog post, Google didn't state the exact reasoning behind shutting down the service, beyond it not gaining the kind of traction the company had hoped for.
The good news here is that Google will be refunding all of its Stadia customers, regardless if it's someone that has bought hardware through the Google Store, or bought games or even add-on content for games through the Stadia Store. Google will be refunding all of its customers by the 18th of January 2023 and those using Stadia will continue to have access to all of their content until that date. Google expects its Stadia technology to be used for other services, or potentially be made available to third parties. As to the team behind Stadia, many will apparently carry on working for other departments at Google.
Source:
Google
The good news here is that Google will be refunding all of its Stadia customers, regardless if it's someone that has bought hardware through the Google Store, or bought games or even add-on content for games through the Stadia Store. Google will be refunding all of its customers by the 18th of January 2023 and those using Stadia will continue to have access to all of their content until that date. Google expects its Stadia technology to be used for other services, or potentially be made available to third parties. As to the team behind Stadia, many will apparently carry on working for other departments at Google.
179 Comments on Google Calls it Quits on Game Streaming, Shutting Down Stadia
Here's me pressing LT on the website gamepad-tester.com
As one can see, even this web-based utility recognizes the device. While apparently it has Bluetooth capability, this feature was never enabled. It does have wifi connectivity which allowed it to talk directly with Google Stadia servers to reduce input lag; this functionality will die when Google shuts down their Stadia servers in January 2023.
The gamepad -- created entirely in-house -- is pretty comfortable. It is obvious that people who actually play games designed this device.
Here's TechRadar's musings on the Stadia Controller:
www.techradar.com/news/as-google-stadia-dies-spare-a-thought-for-its-fantastic-controller
The Chromecast that mine shipped with presumably functions as a standalone Chromecast (2nd generation) would. It's a decidedly archaic device in this realm, doing 1080p @ 30 Hz or 720p @ 60 Hz. As a standalone product it was discontinued about a year before Stadia launched so Google was probably trying to repurpose existing inventory.
My Chromecast will likely get e-cycled.
I actually bought the Stadia bundle heavily discounted for the controller as a backup device. I never intended to use the Stadia service although I did fire it up a couple of times to see what the performance and user experience was like. It wasn't great but it wasn't unplayable either and I have a pretty pokey DSL connection.
Cloud game streaming basically runs off of PC anyhow (well, virtual ones) like NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW service.
Content will gradually move that direction with fast action, low latency competitive FPS titles being toward the end of the migration. Nintendo is taking a very slow, deliberate and careful approach in releasing cloud titles.
And no one (sane at least) expects a total switchover overnight. I still listen to music from terrestrial radio stations and play audio CDs. Some people have vinyl records.
There will be lots of overlap for years.
But as long as PCs are used for content generation, some people will favor it for content consumption.
The only mobile game I play is NieR Re[in]carnation, and it runs like utter trash on my Galaxy S10+ (Exynos 9820 version), requiring me to drop to the lowest settings and draining its aged battery from 100 to 0 in mere minutes... it's insane. This is a 3 year old device and in the Android world, it's an elderly, ancient museum piece, it's so out of style not even the phone shops carry cases for it anymore, even if it'd be a rather newish and serviceable iPhone.
I hope you disabled "game mode" on Android for the Galaxy S10+!
The battery issue is aggravating since this phone isn't really user-repairable, requiring tools which I do not have - Samsung wants more than it's worth to replace it and as it's about 3 years old (and thus has over 1000 cycles in it already), it has already begun to seriously decay through normal use. Most of the time I just leave it looping that game to farm stuff for me, I do my normal play on an Android emulator on my PC.
Hugh (YouTuber that fixes a lot of phones and shows the internals on newer iPhones and all) did a do-over on an S10+ back in 2020, but as you can see... it's got so much adhesive everywhere and that glass back is just gonna snap on me, I know it will. I'm just going to purchase a new phone once I get myself more active again.
This is almost an economical law, just large groups fail to realize this. You either manage to save money to own things or you havent done that and never will, relegating you to the bottom of the ladder slowly but certainly.
It goes for everything. Buy house = make money by living. Rent house = throw money in a pit to live. Buy and (if you want) sell anything versus renting it is the same thing. Its about return on investment versus just blatant consuming things without any return.
Its no coincidence that the prevalence of 'services' grows along with an increasing gap between poor and rich ;)
And its the core reason I do everything to keep returning expenses low. And that means cloud gaming never happens over here, and I own content or dont consume it, most of the time.
Society has developed an addiction for media name it TV shows, movies, music, video games... and due to the impossibility of buying everything we want to go through such services appeared to take on that problem. This is old as renting media was a thing before the Internet. Why would you buy a movie you'd watch once when you can rent it for 2€. Like it a lot and plan to watch it several times? Buy it.
Comparing this consumerism to owning a house in which you can invest because you NEED it for shelter is inane.
Good movies\TV Shows are worth watching more than once, why should i keep buying to watch over and over. And if you have a local thrift store you can pick most up for $1-$2.
Most games, even most casual games, will never work well enough.Many big game publishers are going this route, but I think we as consumers should fight back with out wallets. I call it the dark side of the gaming markets, not just because they are cynical, greedy and prioritize quantity over quality, but primarily because they are exploiting people who become addicted to gaming. Among young gamers, this pressure may not just come from the gaming companies themselves, as they often are faced with grinding for hours vs. paying an extra fee to be able to play with their friends.
I wasn't trying to justify them, just giving the reasons and calling out such a stretch of a comparison.
No one is being forced to subscribe to Disney+, to go to the library to check out audio CDs, watch some kid in Argentina play Apex Legends on Twitch.
And no one is expected to like all of the choice. No one can please everyone all the time. If you don't like cloud game streaming services, don't use them. But the fact of the matter is that they will likely appeal to a certain segment of the population. That's fine.
arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/stadia-controllers-could-become-e-waste-unless-google-issues-bluetooth-update/I see your TechRadar and raise you one ArsTechncia