Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
YouTube Playables will be shut down on Thursday, March 28. This isn’t a surprise as YouTube confirmed at the time of the feature’s reveal that it would last until March 28. Playables allowed users to (surprise) play a variety of simplistic games on YouTube via streaming.
YouTube announced Playables late last year, as it tested the ability for users to play simple games on the video streaming platform. Now, it turns out that Playables are leaving the service in a few days.
YouTube Playables are “going away” on March 28, according to the platform’s Experiments page. The feature was available to Premium users via Android, iOS, and the web.
Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
This date isn’t new, though, as the March 28 date was listed last year too. So it seems less like a case of Playables being killed off due to low popularity/engagement and more like the scheduled end of an experiment. We’ve nevertheless asked YouTube whether Playables are being killed off or if this is a prelude to a full-scale return down the line. We’ll update the article if/when the company gets back to us.
Either way, Playables is a less ambitious approach to gaming than Google’s shuttered Stadia business. Unlike Stadia, Playables focused on simple games such as Angry Birds, billiards, crossword puzzles, and solitaire.
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