6 ms·

Isn’t it very similar to Steam?

zeusk 7y ago
Not quite. I can play steam games offline, I can share them with my friends/family and the most important part being - steam's platform has been reliable with top notch support since 90s while Google hasn't gotten that even in 2019.
- nathankunicki 7y ago
  You can only play them offline as long as it can check in to Steam every few days. If (once) Steam is turned off, it will no longer be able to do that.
  - Aeolun 7y ago
    The difference is that 90% if not more of Valve’s income is from Steam, so unless they feel like killing their company they won’t turn it off.
  - zeusk 7y ago
    > If (once) Steam is turned off Big if, and if Steam doesn't provide an alternative method or change their DRM before turning off. Something unprecedented for Steam over 20+ years, but not so for Google.
    - nathankunicki 7y ago
      Steam, one day, will disappear. Not tomorrow, but perhaps 100 years from now. On that day, you will no longer be able to download or even play those games for more than a few days.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - gnufied 7y ago
        Will I be alive to care?
        nathankunicki 7y ago
        That's a sad response. Video game preservation efforts are ongoing for games older than the NES right now, I don't see why that wouldn't be the case in the future for the current generation of consoles.
        oneshotthrowawa 7y ago
        owning things means that people then inherit things when you die
        robrtsql 7y ago
        The cynical reply to this is also "Will I be alive to care?". A more realistic reply might be "will any humans even be alive to inherit my game library?" or "will anyone even be able to run any of my games on the hardware and software available 100 years from now?"
    - drusepth 7y ago
      Pretty sure he was referring to exiting the Steam application; not Steam as a service being shut down. I might be wrong though.
  - Phrodo_00 7y ago
    This is only true for games using Steamworks DRM (which, granted, is most modern games). Other games you can just run them from their folder.
  - Amygaz 7y ago
    Can Stadia be offline?
    - smitty1110 7y ago
      Nope. Depends on a fast, reliable, low-packet-loss network connection at all times. The game is running on a cloud instance and being streamed to you chromecast.
  - djanogo 7y ago
    Steam is Valve's only business, if Steam shuts down that mean whole company is in trouble or about to go bankrupt or bought out. Google can shutdown Stadia because VP changed or Director got promoted to another part of business and nobody is there to sell this product internally - which means it gets shut down.
    - nathankunicki 7y ago
      I can play NES games from 35 years ago despite the fact that Nintendo has ceased manufacturing the console and publishing the games. As soon as Steam decides to shut down (and it will one day, be it tomorrow, or 30 years from now, those games are no longer playable). Nothing lasts forever.
      - dwrowe 7y ago
        Except Valve could issue a final update that disables the DRM Check, and the game is still playable locally, right? More likely than Stadia developing a local client to sync game content/licenses to.
        generalpf 7y ago
        Valve doesn’t have the right to do this. They have an agreement with publishers that they will supply it.
        dwrowe 7y ago
        Is there any sort of survivability clause in that agreement? Genuinely asking - not directly familiar with it.
        grogenaut 7y ago
        They actually do have the right to do this and a technical implementation. Essentially they've escrowed enough cash to run the drm for many years in the future even if they went out of business so they keep their agreements and their customers happy. Also, having worked in game sales, it turns out that buying "drm free unlocks of long tail" games is not expensive. How do you think things like PS Plus Free Games works? Essentially game devs book revenue now for possibl future revenue lost. It's a smart trade for most games unless that game is say skyrim.
  - Dylan16807 7y ago
    If Steam truly shuts down, I doubt it will even take a full day before there's a conveniently-packaged crack that disables the DRM, with links spammed everywhere.
- shaklee3 7y ago
  Steam was launched in 2003...
Arelius 7y ago
I think the primary worry is that A. Google has a long history of shutting down products that seems erratic. and B. the economics of this seem precarious, thus pushing on A. Where Steam has proven to be very profitable and Valve has a longer track record, and this is their primary business.
- v7p1Qbt1im 7y ago
  Tell me a mainstream (for Google scale) service that shut down. Offline Trips, Reader, Inbox, etc do not count. A couple of million users (at max) are just not enough. If bigger things shut down they either have a replacement or they are Google+. And no one complained when that was shut down. Also Stadia has a subscription basis. Cloud gaming is just too important to let Microsoft win. Just like cloud in general. Regarding the primary business argument. This is exactly what they are hedging against. Google knows ad revenue can‘t grow forever. Regulation might be coming. Cloud and stuff like this will have to take more and more of the load.
  - ncallaway 7y ago
    > Offline Trips, Reader, Inbox, etc do not count. A couple of million users (at max) are just not enough. What if Stadia under-performs their financial expectations? What if it under-performs those expectations for 2-4 years? I'm not certain that Google will shut-down Stadia in that time-frame, but I'm absolutely not certain that it will also be running at that point. I'm extremely confident that Valve won't shut down Steam in that time-frame, though.
    - opendomain 7y ago
      What if Google takes away enough revenue with Stadia? Then Valve may no be able to keep Steam up in the time frame.
      - dingo_bat 7y ago
        But all games you bought from steam will still be yours to play. Stadia games will just stop working as soon as Google pulls the plug.
msbarnett 7y ago
Not at all? You can (indeed, have to) download your purchases from Steam. Many of which are DRM free. Valve has also said they'll remove Valve DRM from the games that use it in the unlikely event they shut down. There are, in other words, obvious contingency plans. With this, the game you "own" lives and runs solely on Google's servers. If they decide to shut those servers down, you're fucked. But good thing Google isn't known for suddenly EOLing popular products, right?
- Godel_unicode 7y ago
  DRM doesn't matter for most video games, only servers matter. If steam shuts down you won't be able to play most games regardless of DRM.
  - msbarnett 7y ago
    I don’t think “most” games are multiplayer only

Not quite. I can play steam games offline, I can share them with my friends/family and the most important part being - steam's platform has been reliable with top notch support since 90s while Google hasn't gotten that even in 2019.

nathankunicki 7y ago
You can only play them offline as long as it can check in to Steam every few days. If (once) Steam is turned off, it will no longer be able to do that.
- Aeolun 7y ago
  The difference is that 90% if not more of Valve’s income is from Steam, so unless they feel like killing their company they won’t turn it off.
- zeusk 7y ago
  > If (once) Steam is turned off Big if, and if Steam doesn't provide an alternative method or change their DRM before turning off. Something unprecedented for Steam over 20+ years, but not so for Google.
  - nathankunicki 7y ago
    Steam, one day, will disappear. Not tomorrow, but perhaps 100 years from now. On that day, you will no longer be able to download or even play those games for more than a few days.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - gnufied 7y ago
      Will I be alive to care?
      - nathankunicki 7y ago
        That's a sad response. Video game preservation efforts are ongoing for games older than the NES right now, I don't see why that wouldn't be the case in the future for the current generation of consoles.
      - oneshotthrowawa 7y ago
        owning things means that people then inherit things when you die
        robrtsql 7y ago
        The cynical reply to this is also "Will I be alive to care?". A more realistic reply might be "will any humans even be alive to inherit my game library?" or "will anyone even be able to run any of my games on the hardware and software available 100 years from now?"
  - drusepth 7y ago
    Pretty sure he was referring to exiting the Steam application; not Steam as a service being shut down. I might be wrong though.
- Phrodo_00 7y ago
  This is only true for games using Steamworks DRM (which, granted, is most modern games). Other games you can just run them from their folder.
- Amygaz 7y ago
  Can Stadia be offline?
  - smitty1110 7y ago
    Nope. Depends on a fast, reliable, low-packet-loss network connection at all times. The game is running on a cloud instance and being streamed to you chromecast.
- djanogo 7y ago
  Steam is Valve's only business, if Steam shuts down that mean whole company is in trouble or about to go bankrupt or bought out. Google can shutdown Stadia because VP changed or Director got promoted to another part of business and nobody is there to sell this product internally - which means it gets shut down.
  - nathankunicki 7y ago
    I can play NES games from 35 years ago despite the fact that Nintendo has ceased manufacturing the console and publishing the games. As soon as Steam decides to shut down (and it will one day, be it tomorrow, or 30 years from now, those games are no longer playable). Nothing lasts forever.
    - dwrowe 7y ago
      Except Valve could issue a final update that disables the DRM Check, and the game is still playable locally, right? More likely than Stadia developing a local client to sync game content/licenses to.
      - generalpf 7y ago
        Valve doesn’t have the right to do this. They have an agreement with publishers that they will supply it.
        dwrowe 7y ago
        Is there any sort of survivability clause in that agreement? Genuinely asking - not directly familiar with it.
        grogenaut 7y ago
        They actually do have the right to do this and a technical implementation. Essentially they've escrowed enough cash to run the drm for many years in the future even if they went out of business so they keep their agreements and their customers happy. Also, having worked in game sales, it turns out that buying "drm free unlocks of long tail" games is not expensive. How do you think things like PS Plus Free Games works? Essentially game devs book revenue now for possibl future revenue lost. It's a smart trade for most games unless that game is say skyrim.
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  If Steam truly shuts down, I doubt it will even take a full day before there's a conveniently-packaged crack that disables the DRM, with links spammed everywhere.
shaklee3 7y ago
Steam was launched in 2003...

Arelius 7y ago

I think the primary worry is that A. Google has a long history of shutting down products that seems erratic. and B. the economics of this seem precarious, thus pushing on A. Where Steam has proven to be very profitable and Valve has a longer track record, and this is their primary business.

v7p1Qbt1im 7y ago
Tell me a mainstream (for Google scale) service that shut down. Offline Trips, Reader, Inbox, etc do not count. A couple of million users (at max) are just not enough. If bigger things shut down they either have a replacement or they are Google+. And no one complained when that was shut down. Also Stadia has a subscription basis. Cloud gaming is just too important to let Microsoft win. Just like cloud in general. Regarding the primary business argument. This is exactly what they are hedging against. Google knows ad revenue can‘t grow forever. Regulation might be coming. Cloud and stuff like this will have to take more and more of the load.
- ncallaway 7y ago
  > Offline Trips, Reader, Inbox, etc do not count. A couple of million users (at max) are just not enough. What if Stadia under-performs their financial expectations? What if it under-performs those expectations for 2-4 years? I'm not certain that Google will shut-down Stadia in that time-frame, but I'm absolutely not certain that it will also be running at that point. I'm extremely confident that Valve won't shut down Steam in that time-frame, though.
  - opendomain 7y ago
    What if Google takes away enough revenue with Stadia? Then Valve may no be able to keep Steam up in the time frame.
    - dingo_bat 7y ago
      But all games you bought from steam will still be yours to play. Stadia games will just stop working as soon as Google pulls the plug.

msbarnett 7y ago

Not at all? You can (indeed, have to) download your purchases from Steam. Many of which are DRM free. Valve has also said they'll remove Valve DRM from the games that use it in the unlikely event they shut down. There are, in other words, obvious contingency plans. With this, the game you "own" lives and runs solely on Google's servers. If they decide to shut those servers down, you're fucked. But good thing Google isn't known for suddenly EOLing popular products, right?

Godel_unicode 7y ago
DRM doesn't matter for most video games, only servers matter. If steam shuts down you won't be able to play most games regardless of DRM.
- msbarnett 7y ago
  I don’t think “most” games are multiplayer only