Unfortunately, you're right and the responses here are proof of that.
Stadia has has the potential to have a hugely negative impact on the gaming industry.
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The Antitrust Implications of Google Stadia are Dire and No One is Questioning it. *Not a Single Journalist has Covered it.*
- Thread starter Deleted member 8752
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Stadia has has the potential to have a hugely negative impact on the gaming industry.
I was thinking about this today with Pixel phones. I'm guessing Google would run Stadia at a loss for at least the first five years, but would be able to sell and promote so many other products, but maybe violate anti-trust laws if they kept things exclusive.
Too many people here were hoping that Google would "disrupt" the games industry. If they are successful with Stadia they will, in a way that everyone will regret.
Here's a potential scenario for you guys to analyze:
1. Sony or Microsoft has marketing rights for an upcoming game, like, say, DOOM Eternal.
2. They upload a new trailer for the game on their YouTube accounts.
3. Google, however, sneakily adds a "Buy on Stadia" button on this trailer page, benefitting from someone else's marketing.
Question: can Google do this, despite Microsoft or Sony having the marketing rights? Or this is a gray area still untested in courts?
1. Sony or Microsoft has marketing rights for an upcoming game, like, say, DOOM Eternal.
2. They upload a new trailer for the game on their YouTube accounts.
3. Google, however, sneakily adds a "Buy on Stadia" button on this trailer page, benefitting from someone else's marketing.
Question: can Google do this, despite Microsoft or Sony having the marketing rights? Or this is a gray area still untested in courts?
Web developers are only developing sites towards Chrome and Safari, after the long fought battle to get more standard HTML 5 support Google is just encouraging devs to ignore that entirely. It is why MS Edge is going over to Chromium in the first place, that team is just tired of having to get their browser to pretend it is Chrome even though the browser supports web standards better than Chrome. Google would change something in YouTube to intentionally hamper YouTube in non-Webkit/Blink browsers and the Edge team had to struggle to figure out what was changed.
I wonder if the fact they are basically tying something into Chrome that has nothing to do with web browsing count as anti-competitive in the EU? Its kind of like a version of making your browser the OS default. If you want to use all the features of Stadia like Youtube integration, Chrome has to be your browser.
This is fairly concerning. Right now if you look up a movie (I did Shaun of the Dead) and go to "Watch Movie" on search results, it will bring up a slew of digital storefronts to watch it (rent not buy).
The first is YouTube (Google owned) and then it goes to Amazon, iTunes, etc. Sure they're all the same price ($3.99 for me in the US) but that's still an advantage due to the fact that they control the search results.
The first is YouTube (Google owned) and then it goes to Amazon, iTunes, etc. Sure they're all the same price ($3.99 for me in the US) but that's still an advantage due to the fact that they control the search results.
OP
OP
I doubt anyone could answer this with reasonable accuracy right now. It's an interesting question.
Man, your tone is absurd. Relax chicken little, the sky isn't going anywhere for a long time.
Of course it is, that is not anti trust it's there service.
I searched the Nintendo eshop and not a single PS4 or Xbox game came up, it was shocking.
I am pissed about the Disney acquisition because we are seeing this all over entertainment and the anti trust laws in the US are a joke.
I am very concerned how google will handle this and I hope to god the video game market is strong enough to provide solid competition.
Google like disney and like Amazon is another behemoth consolidating their power without any restrictions whatsoever and that should concern everybody.
Also big mergers like this never lead to anything good it leads to less competition and makes it hard for anybody else to compete.
The OP should have beeen about potential antitrust issues with Google entering the gaming space. But talking about issues like it's a fact in a future market that nobody has entered yet is just silly.
OP
OP
True. This is all potential. But the way they were discussing the implementation in the presentation makes it seem predatory.
OP makes some good points. Google is also now on their 3rd multi-billion fine with EU.
There are anti-trust concerns already in EU, there are anti-trust concerns in US amongst many of 2020 Democratic challengers. Google is toeing a very dangerous line here.
There are anti-trust concerns already in EU, there are anti-trust concerns in US amongst many of 2020 Democratic challengers. Google is toeing a very dangerous line here.
I had some of the same thoughts as the OP early on in the conference. The buy on Stadia concept from a YouTube video especially.
Considering how ubiquitous Google search and YouTube are, the possibilities for Google to abuse this are high.
Well, I expect big EU fines coming up either way.
Considering how ubiquitous Google search and YouTube are, the possibilities for Google to abuse this are high.
Well, I expect big EU fines coming up either way.
I mean, Microsoft got yanked over and over again for embedding Internet Explorer into windows.
The least Google should be forced to do is always display several (or all) marketplaces at the same time when clicking on 'buy'.
There's definitely a huge conflict of interest on youtube acting both as publicization mechanism AND storefront.
The least Google should be forced to do is always display several (or all) marketplaces at the same time when clicking on 'buy'.
There's definitely a huge conflict of interest on youtube acting both as publicization mechanism AND storefront.
It doesn't even have to be Google themselves who advertise the game on Stadia. Given the focus on state sharing and engagement with Youtube personalities, channel presenters might be the ones who're always linking Stadia games in their videos (or directly in th video like annotations). I think this is only potentially a problem if they don't open this feature up for other streaming platforms though.
I don't this is a comparable situation. YouTube is a video streaming platform for user made and big studio produced content. Them advertising video content on their platform makes sense. However Stadia is a totally different independent platform for gaming which uses video streaming as the delivery mechanism. It offers a different service and exists in a different market. It becomes a form of vertical integration/exclusive dealing. Offering the ability to seamlessly get into a game you were watching a video of is very cool and something I'm looking forward to but there is potential for anti competitive behaviour here. I don't think much will come of it though. Lots of tech companies are vertically integrated but nothing seems to have been done about it.
Yes, what would that mean? If they could simply advertise and sell you a product through hyperlink, without hardware, simply using your browser.
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I suspect that they'll have to turn the Play Now button into an advertisement at some point in the future to head off these claims.
You do realize that the publishers and developers don't give a shit so long as you buy the game right? If you're worried about antitrust, use Bing, or better yet don't click the ad when Google tries to sell you something.