Google says you might have to wait to play Stadia, even if you preorder : gadgets
Hoooooly crap I can’t believe all the attention this comment got. I’ll try and address everyone all at once, since there’s no way I’m going to manage individual replies, but it looks like a lot of people are sharing points. If I don’t address a particular thing, it’s probably just because I’ve missed it in the huge surge of replies I got.
Most of my ‘I hope it fails’ is because I do not want to see Stadia-exclusivity locking me out of something I would otherwise want. I already have enough of that with the Switch I can’t currently afford to pick up. The argument that demand drives improving infrastructure, is, under current systems, not really viable IMO. Until we have Broadband treated as and managed as a public utility with clear regulations for minimum quality and fully-functional net neutraility, it’s not going to be ideal. I also echo Sentmoraap’s concerns about DRM/Game Culture Preservation, and someone else made a great point about Google’s tendency to dabble in any field that isn’t search, without caring about the success of the project.
To the people who felt attacked because they like/want gaming streaming, see the above. Those are the concerns I have for the future and that’s why I don’t want to see it become a big thing. It has nothing to do with being ‘selfish’ or having some hostility toward people who do want it. I have a stance on it, just as others do, and we don’t strictly have to agree. But calling me selfish for having well-reasoned concerns is pretty harsh I think. I see a lot of talk about demand bringing more ISPs into the market – the big powers that already control the market tend to operate on non-competition agreements and will pretty strongly try and resist any startups that try to provide better service. It’s the unfortunate curse of money.
Others have raised issues like game modding and such as well, which I absolutely agree with, not owning my own games bothers me a great deal, and not being able to mod them also kind of sucks for a lot of people. Modding is the only reason Bethesda is still relevant, despite their BEST efforts (*eyes Fallout 1st service announcement*)
Someone said we should be cheering the technology on because it will spur changes in the market. That’s kind of what I’m afraid of. EA is already doing its ‘EA access’ program, Playstation Now is a thing, and other hardware devs and companies could easily do similar, and then we have what’s happening to the online video market now. Netflix alone was fantastic, but now we’ve got a billion other services opening, removing things from Netflix and offering new things on separate subscription platforms, wanting to make a piece of the ‘pie’ but to get everything you want now you may have to end up paying for 5 or 6 subscriptions. I don’t want to see gaming turn into that, especially if it also comes with losing the ability to just buy and own a specific game.
