What About Your Games When Google Stadia Dies?

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What About Your Games When Google Stadia Dies?
What About Your Games When Google Stadia Dies?

Video: What About Your Games When Google Stadia Dies?

Video: What About Your Games When Google Stadia Dies?
Video: Why Google Killed its Stadia Games 2024, March
Anonim

I can't answer whether the cloud and your games will be there without Google Stadia. Simply because it has to happen before we have precise answers here. The only strange thing is that Stadia apparently has as little as we do. How about a story? One is true, so be careful:

In the realm of Reddit, not too long ago, user IntitialLingonberry was thinking the same thing and asked an emissary from the enchanted land Stadia what should happen to the games should the streaming platform be discontinued.

Are there guarantees? Can the games be installed elsewhere?

The emissary from the Stadia empire bowed his head and started to answer. Let's hear what he said:

But dear emissary from Stadia, did you answer our question at all? The masked man remained silent and answered only completely different questions throughout the rest of the discussion, despite repeated requests to provide information first. Maybe we just have to believe? At least that's what Jim Sterling suggests, who discusses the unanswered question in a video and does it in a rather amusing way - but in English:

Now maybe let's leave the magic land Stadia for a moment to take a look at reality.

You don't buy games, you buy licenses

First of all, you don't own any games anyway. With the purchase you only acquire the right to play the different titles - just as you buy the right to watch films and listen to music. This right can vary widely and be tied to other conditions, such as an online constraint: “You can only play the game when you are online."

Then we would have arrived at digital rights management, or DRM for short. A DRM system is by no means just copy protection, with which it is mainly associated. It is a summary term for all conditions that determine how exactly you can and can use that game. Steam is such a DRM system that sells you licenses for games that you can play within a certain framework (via Steam). If you uninstall Steam, there will be no more Steam games for you. (However, there is an offline mode.)

What happens if Steam goes bankrupt? We don't know that either, because it just hasn't happened yet. It may also be interesting to think that large platforms such as Steam will certainly not simply disappear. It is much more likely that they will be bought up if the ship suddenly sinks. If Steam is sold, the chances are high that you can keep your games and that they may not change that much.

But who knows. I just know that I don't know very much when it comes to the games I buy.

The problem with Google Stadia is that the service not only sells licenses, but binds them to a service that is by no means very secure - the Stadia cloud. You'll play over them, but should Stadia actually go bankrupt or be dropped by Google because there wasn't enough interest in it … then where do you play? Nowhere. Your license will then no longer be worth anything because it is not DRM-free. It binds you to Stadia and no, neither Google nor Google Stadia can guarantee that the service will last forever.

Do you still know Google+? YouTube gaming? Google Spaces? You no longer have to, because all these Google services are dead. There is a page that tells you exactly which apps, services and hardware Google has already sold - Killed By Google. Of course, Google wants Stadia to be a success - but there can be no guarantee, since success is largely dependent on you. In other words: Of all those who will use the service.

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Prefer not to buy at all?

The question is not whether cloud gaming works or not. Of course it works and yes, most likely all of our games will eventually hang in a cloud, much like music, film, photos and documents. The question is rather how you can use your games - and whether that license to play the titles entitles you to download the product and possibly play outside the cloud.

The question may also be whether that streaming service gives you protection. And no matter what question we ask, there should at least be an answer to whether our purchased games could simply disappear without our intervention. For whatever reason.

Maybe we should start asking more questions. Or turn to those services that have answers instead of avoiding our demands. GOG, for example, sells DRM-free games, which means, among other things, that you don't need a GOG or launcher to start these games. Or to copy. Should GOG ever go into the eternal hunting grounds of the game platforms, you will keep all the titles purchased. And do you know anything else? That is an exception.

Of course, however, GOG is not a streaming service, because DRM-free and streaming do not really fit together. And to ask one last question: Why buy games when we stream? Why not adopt the actual Netflix principle and rent games for a limited time? I guess it is better to give up the rights to the game entirely and in full consciousness - than to buy it and then PUFF! Are they all gone?

Which game is rated here?

Marina Hansel
Marina Hansel

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