Closing Time

Closing Time - A Time of Service Shutdowns

These may seem like scary times for gamers and techies alike.

Services are shutting down everywhere, from game server hosting shutting down like GameSpy that we reported last week, Ubuntu One cloud services shutting down at the end of May, and even the original XBOX Live support being dropped not too long ago.

This may seem like a scary change, but it's nothing to fear on the whole. The internet is young and we're used to hearing about all the new services and platforms popping up, but it's only natural we'd reach a time of major change-overs and service shutdowns.

Think about the businesses and stores that used to reside on the big streets or highways in your city or the city near you. If you don't remember things being different, your parents or grandparents could probably tell you a few stories about what used to be where.

Changes in public services and locations are a natural flow of our capitalistic system. Things change, businesses close, more open, it all flows.

The only difference here is that the internet is still in a younger stage, and we're not used to that.

Servers, bandwidth, and storage space are just a few factors that go into providing services over the web, and they are all very expensive to keep up. While it sucks for the end-user for services to shut down, sometimes decisions have to be made and rarely will they mean the end of the world. In a web market of plenty of alternatives to every service and product available, one service shutting down rarely ever means the end of access.

The trend is a frightening one at first, but by no means something to worry about. Change is good in the long run.