The thing is since the games are on the cloud, once the servers go off, that's all she wrote. Its not like Steam or GoG, where if Steam goes down there's probably a way to download and have them forever. Same with GoG.
Not so with Stadia. The law hasn't caught up to digital copies yet, its barely even considered it. Cloud services with streaming is a whole other ballgame. With Netflix and Hulu and such, you're basically paying for the service of streaming and licensing. Its basically like your own personal blockbuster, where you can watch unlimited with a membership. If the store goes down, technically you aren't owed, because the thing you were paying for was the ability to rent all this content.
On the other hand, with Stadia, you're basically paying to own something that you're effectively renting. Each game is full price or equivalent to a digital or physical copy. Its not actually renting, because you're paying full price to own something. So you technically own the game. The Stadia fee is renting out the Google servers to play something that you own. That's why Stadia is a fucking idiotic concept.
For example, I pay $10 bucks a month to PlaystationNow and Stream PS games on my PC and Sony decides to shut down the service, I'm not owed, because I'm technically renting their entire library. Its also highly, HIGHLY unlikely that they shut the service down since they're probably using their own servers. So I can safely subscribe to PlaystationNow and be confident that the service is going to last for a very long time. Not so with Stadia. Google is not a videogame company like Sony or even Valve.
With Stadia, I'm not only paying to own a game, I'm paying for their service. So if their service goes down, there's simply no way to play that game anymore. Yes, technically I own it, but you don't really. You own a license to play it on Google's Servers. If those servers go down, too fucking bad. Digital is much easier to make a case for that you bought a product on your PC and it is yours. For example, even games that have been removed from purchase on Steam due to Steam losing the license or copyright conflicts or whatever, if I bought that game, I can download it in perpetuity and play it. Nobody else can buy it, because the license is no longer offered. As long as I bought it, I own the license to use it on a PC. So as long as you own the hardware, you can use it. Very simple.
What happens if you are buying a license to use on someone else's hardware? You are shit out of fucking luck, that's what you are. With the way Google cancels and stops products, you're an absolute fucking moron to even touch this thing with a ten foot pole. The argument that Google can make is very simple: You own a license to play those games on Google's servers and the fee you pay is the rental of that equipment. If they no longer chose to rent equipment, you still have the license, but they are under no obligation to offer the hardware to play them. Like if I own a license for software for defunct hardware, I still have the license, but since the hardware is no longer being sold, I better pray that my shit doesn't break or you're fucked. The company is under no obligation to continue producing or offering that hardware if they cannot afford it. That's what Google is going to argue if they shut it down and I think they've got a pretty good case for that. Caveat Emptor.
The whole concept is fucking idiotic unless you're paying for something like PlayStation Now or a Netflix equivalent for games. Where you just pay a flat subscription fee and get access to a library. Cloud gaming as Stadia is doing it is not the future, because there is absolutely no guarantees that whatever you purchase will exist in four or five years time.
Nobody is. They're lying to themselves, just like every single person that bought an Ouya.
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. The only way it was ever going to work was if they really had that sci-fi AI. That speaks to the culture at google as well. They're meant to have some of the best engineers money can buy but somehow they managed to take this pile of crap all the way to market. Either the engineers are afraid to tell the managers no or their diversity hiring has been going terribly and their engineers are complete morons.
gamedaily.biz
