Google To Wind Down Stadia Streaming Service Three Years After Launch

The lawsuit, led by consumer champion Alex Neill, claims Sony charged a 30 per cent commission on every digital game and in-game purchase made through the Playstation store - an online shop for consoles selling games and extra content to users. 

Sept 29 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google said on Thursday it would wind down its consumer gaming service, Stadia, as it failed to attract enough interest from gamers after nearly three years of being launched.

Last week memory chip maker Micron Technology warned of tougher times and said it was cutting its capex investments in fiscal 2023 by over 30% to a total of $8 billion. Nvidia Corp and Intel Corp both delivered much worse than expected earnings in their latest reports.

website Stadia was launched in 2019 along with an internal game development unit that was expected to make titles for the platform. (Reporting by Tiyashi Datta and Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Runaway inflation and the reopening of offices and schools have led people to spend less on PCs than they did during lockdowns when many bought computers for work and school as they stayed home during the pandemic.

"While Stadia's approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a strong technology foundation, it hasn't gained the traction with users that we expected," Phil Harrison, vice president and general manager of Stadia, said in a blog post.

Neill, who runs consumer complaints website Resolver, said 'the game is up' for Sony.
She said the case is particularly important as gaming is the biggest part of the UK's entertainment industry - ahead of TV, video and music. 

Many popular pkv games are free and make the majority of their money from paid addons, with figures showing £46bn was spent on in-game purchases in 2020.
Figures also show more than 60 per cent of adults in the UK regularly play a game on a console or mobile phone. 

Oct 6 (Reuters) - Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc on Thursday provided third-quarter revenue estimates that were about a billion dollars less than previously forecast, signaling the chip slump could be much worse than expected.

"I think AMD is showing that nobody is safe from the post-pandemic PC downturn, and those inventory corrections are also impacting the company," said Anshel Sag, chip analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

Neill said: 'The drive towards in-game purchases allows companies like Sony to profiteer and abuse their power because they have a captive audience. Sony knows its customers are hooked once they are part of the PlayStation world and it exploits them with exorbitant charges on every digital purchase.' 

The land disputes between the Maasai villagers and the national park management emerged in 2012 but later in 2017 the government ordered the residents to leave and security forces later evicted them by force.

Milberg partner Natasha Pearman, who is leading the case, said: 'It [Sony] has deployed an anti-competitive strategy which has resulted in excessive prices to customers that are out of all proportion to the costs of Sony providing its services.' 

Rights groups and the Maasai community say the villages are outside the park's boundaries, and that villagers were the victims of a violent police crackdown aimed at forcing them off their traditional lands to make way for trophy hunting by tourists and conservation.

Meanwhile more than 90 per cent of ten to 16-year-olds play online games regularly. Campaign group ParentZone has claimed children feel under pressure to make ingame purchases and almost half believe games are only fun when spending money.

The payout for each person in the claim is estimated to be between £67 and £562. Playstation, You Owe Us said the Japanese tech giant abused its dominant position in the gaming market and UK customers were 'unfairly' charged over the odds.
Neill said: 'With this legal action I am standing up for the millions of UK people who have been unwittingly overcharged. 

The government said four Maasai villages are located within the boundaries of the Serengeti National Park, which was originally demarcated under British military rule for gaming but redrawn for conservation by subsequent administrations.

"The court has given a strong signal to the international community that evictions and human rights abuses against indigenous peoples should be tolerated if they are done in the name of protecting nature," Longo said.

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DAR ES SALAAM, Sept 30 (Reuters) - A regional court on Friday dismissed a case brought by a group of Maasai villagers claiming the Tanzanian government used violence to evict them from their ancestral lands in the north of the country.

Potential beneficiaries of the claim do not have to take action to be included.
The case is funded by Woodsford, a team of litigation experts investing in large commercial claims, so those affected will not have to pay any of the costs of the action themselves. Sony was asked to comment.