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A more interesting question would be: "How long will it stay fine?" If Google is (officially) that confident Stadia is doing well why don't they officially com

A more interesting question would be: "How long will it stay fine?" If Google is (officially) that confident Stadia is doing well why don't they officially commit to support the product for the next X years?

jsnell 5y ago
Because a promise to support the product for X years would just be twisted to "the product will be killed in X years" headlines. You can't fight a double standard like that, the best you can do is avoid feeding it.
- MattGaiser 5y ago
  Even so, will be killed in 5 years makes me more confident in trying it than knowing it could be killed at any moment or in 6 months. 5 years is the life of a game console.
  - dontblink 5y ago
    For you maybe. For many of the rest of us we would avoid it like the plague.
    - MattGaiser 5y ago
      But likely for reasons that have little to do with how long it will last.
    - zamadatix 5y ago
      I'd be curious how many of that demographic aren't already avoiding it like the plague for the originally stated reasoning though. I.e. it's not likely the lack of any guarantee is making many in that group any more confident the service will be here in 6 years in the first place.
- alpaca128 5y ago
  But at least it would give clarity. Right now both dev studios and gamers are very cautious because they have no idea whether Stadia will exist for 5 more weeks or 5+ years. In a time when courts are trying to decide whether an online "purchase" is actually a purchase or if the company can just make it inaccessible over night this is not a good situation. The way Google communicates does not help, on one hand they say everything is fine, on the other hand they just closed their dev studio days after telling their employees everything's fine. It's hard for them to make Stadia seem even riskier than it looks right now.
gregmac 5y ago
This. Google must be well aware of their reputation. It boggles my mind why they keep repeating the same pattern. Maybe it's just my bubble (HN, tech twitter, like-minded friends) but it certainly seems like everyone in it is loathe to adopt new Google stuff, precisely because they have a reputation going back 15+ years of mercilessly killing anything they release, no matter how great it is. I would bet if they commit to maintaining a product for x years (and continually extend that timeline) they'd see a lot more use.

jsnell 5y ago

Because a promise to support the product for X years would just be twisted to "the product will be killed in X years" headlines. You can't fight a double standard like that, the best you can do is avoid feeding it.

MattGaiser 5y ago
Even so, will be killed in 5 years makes me more confident in trying it than knowing it could be killed at any moment or in 6 months. 5 years is the life of a game console.
- dontblink 5y ago
  For you maybe. For many of the rest of us we would avoid it like the plague.
  - MattGaiser 5y ago
    But likely for reasons that have little to do with how long it will last.
  - zamadatix 5y ago
    I'd be curious how many of that demographic aren't already avoiding it like the plague for the originally stated reasoning though. I.e. it's not likely the lack of any guarantee is making many in that group any more confident the service will be here in 6 years in the first place.
alpaca128 5y ago
But at least it would give clarity. Right now both dev studios and gamers are very cautious because they have no idea whether Stadia will exist for 5 more weeks or 5+ years. In a time when courts are trying to decide whether an online "purchase" is actually a purchase or if the company can just make it inaccessible over night this is not a good situation. The way Google communicates does not help, on one hand they say everything is fine, on the other hand they just closed their dev studio days after telling their employees everything's fine. It's hard for them to make Stadia seem even riskier than it looks right now.

gregmac 5y ago

This. Google must be well aware of their reputation. It boggles my mind why they keep repeating the same pattern. Maybe it's just my bubble (HN, tech twitter, like-minded friends) but it certainly seems like everyone in it is loathe to adopt new Google stuff, precisely because they have a reputation going back 15+ years of mercilessly killing anything they release, no matter how great it is. I would bet if they commit to maintaining a product for x years (and continually extend that timeline) they'd see a lot more use.