5 ms·

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

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.
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  > A couple of million users (at max) are just not enough. Are you taking it as self-evident that Stadia will have more than a couple million users? > Also Stadia has a subscription basis. So did fiber.
  - themacguffinman 7y ago
    Fiber is still serving customers. Not sure what you're referring to.
    - jonnismash 7y ago
      I believe he's referring to something like this: https://gizmodo.com/when-google-fiber-abandons-your-city-as-a-failed-experi-1833244198 https://gizmodo.com/when-google-fiber-abandons-your-city-as-...
  - v7p1Qbt1im 7y ago
    I believe there is a pretty big untapped market of gamers that are more than casual mobile gamers but not enough so to buy their own hardware. 120.- a year means you‘d have to play for 20 years until you reach the cost of top line gaming hardware. And a subscription doesn‘t depreciate. Fiber is different I think because of shitty regulation that favors incumbents and the insane cost of financing a physical network.

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.
Dylan16807 7y ago
> A couple of million users (at max) are just not enough. Are you taking it as self-evident that Stadia will have more than a couple million users? > Also Stadia has a subscription basis. So did fiber.
- themacguffinman 7y ago
  Fiber is still serving customers. Not sure what you're referring to.
  - jonnismash 7y ago
    I believe he's referring to something like this: https://gizmodo.com/when-google-fiber-abandons-your-city-as-a-failed-experi-1833244198 https://gizmodo.com/when-google-fiber-abandons-your-city-as-...
- v7p1Qbt1im 7y ago
  I believe there is a pretty big untapped market of gamers that are more than casual mobile gamers but not enough so to buy their own hardware. 120.- a year means you‘d have to play for 20 years until you reach the cost of top line gaming hardware. And a subscription doesn‘t depreciate. Fiber is different I think because of shitty regulation that favors incumbents and the insane cost of financing a physical network.