Google Rejects Stadia Gamers’ Complaints on Overheated Chromecast Ultras

• Stadia users report shutdowns caused by overheating.
• Google refuses to recognize there’s an issue with the Chromecast Ultra device.
• More of the same for what has been a disastrous launch.

After the less than stellar launch of Stadia last week, early adopters accessing Google’s cloud streaming platform through a Chromecast Ultra dongle report overheating. Temperatures are high enough that they cause the devices to shut down after as little as ten minutes of play.

Thermal throttling appears to be shutting down the units to avoid damaging internal components. Players see their sessions interrupted and game progress lost as a consequence.

To add insult to injury, Google is refusing to recognize the issue. Instead, spouting PR-vetted platitudes about how the device is working as intended.

Stadia just launched, but game streaming is already racing to market saturation. And it’s not even that much of a market in the first place. | Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP

Users Report Chromecast Overheating

One Redditor shared their experience;

I was in the middle of a fight in Destiny 2 when suddenly my Chromecast died and lost connectivity to the network. I went to unplug it from the power and it was extremely hot.

Another reported the following;

Mine has not successfully run a game on the Chromecast longer than 10 minutes before it shuts down from overheating!

While this user had this to say;

Mine is extremely hot and shut off after playing for about 20min. Now it won’t even connect to my home account.

Google Won’t Acknowledge Issue

A Google community manager responded to the reports by brushing off the overheating as a regular part of using the Chromecast Ultra;

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We know any sort of heat on a device can be worrisome, but we can confirm there is no thermal overheating issue with Chromecast Ultra. During normal usage (like watching cat videos on YouTube), the surface of the device may get warm to the touch, but this is working as designed.

The Google representative also explained that the internal testing team were unable to reproduce any thermal shutdown issues during extensive testing.

The conversation rages on as more and more users surface to report similar overheating issues. Google has added no further comment or offered advice to those afflicted.

As a portion of early adopters still await their Founder’s kit, and critics lambast Stadia across the board, this latest issue feels all too appropriate and symptomatic of an undercooked product not yet fit for widespread adoption.

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