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So like... this has been tried before and failed, but Google will likely make it work. But it isn't because Google is a better engineering team or like experts at solving problems. It's just because they own more infrastructure kotaku.com/google-unveils-gaming-platform-stadia-1833409933Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +3 🙂
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This is a sort of fundamental monopolistic behavior but one in a modern mode. It was real easy to see telephone or oil monopolies because they built things that could only be used to further that specific action. But web infrastructure can be used in *lots* of ways...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +1 🙂
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Google isn't a *monopoly* like how we traditionally define it, but their capacity to spin up a bunch of servers and fundamentally change the video game marketplace (or any number of others) is the type of behavior monopoly law is supposed to regulate...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +2 🙂
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Like I want to call it rent-seeking, but it isn't precisely that. Google is basically moving chunks of a marketplace they don't fund or maintain onto their systems by simply being big enough to do so, but also they are gaining wealth for themselves without creating something new.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +9 🙂
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Perhaps there's an economic term I don't know, but what is it when a company can do a thing simply because of their pre-existing resources & gain the majority share of the marketplace b/c they gain from their own subsidized infrastructure in a way no one else could duplicate?Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +4 🙂
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Streaming games failed not due to a technical issue. It is because it was too costly to use all the infrastructure required and Google can use that infrastructure at a lower cost because they own it, but also because they're willing to take a loss in one area to own another area.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood -7 🙁
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Google owns the road so they can take a loss by paying maintenance costs but not charging a toll to their own vehicles which do damage to the road, but instead moving that cost to tolls on other vehicles, making it twice as hard to compete. Tech metaphors are hard yo.On twitter.com
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Mood -8 🙁
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On a real abstract philosophical level, Google shouldn't be able to use their immense preexisting power with very little additional work to basically change an entire marketplace. That's Bad and Wrong. But explaining the specifics is difficult so they'll keep getting away with itPermalink On twitter.com
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Mood -6 🙁
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We all made fun of the dude who talked about backing dump trucks into the pipes to put data on the internet but also this shit is hard to explain in a way that normal voters and non-technical politicians can understand it.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood 0
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Like... this is a thing Google could do for music or video at any time except a bunch of contracts and preexisting laws prevent them from doing so. That's what's scary! They could replace lots of stuff but only regulation holds them back.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood -1 🙁
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In a way, Netflix isn't a tech company because Google could duplicate the tech tomorrow. It's a contract holding company. It's a legal negotiation company. It's a regulatory complying company. I don't have the right words to describe this...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +1 🙂
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But basically only laws and pre-existing contracts prevent Google from rolling out streaming anything and everything in a more effective and cheaper way than anyone else and the laws and licenses aren't fully fleshed out for video games so here they are.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +1 🙂
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Which really really really sucks for stable, easy-entry, competitive marketplaces. It really really really sucks for game creators who now must negotiate with yet another huge undifferentiated company with unbalanced impact in the marketplace.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood -1 🙁