Thursday February 28th, 2008 will be the day that DivX shuts down Stage6.com for good. For many, this comes as a huge disappointment. Stage6 was a place where people went to watch, share, and download high quality videos. One reason it was so great was the fact that the content was compatible with over 70 million electronic devices from major manufacturers. This meant playing back videos gathered form Stage6 was easier than ever. On their about page, they list that Stage6 was an experiment to see how new technologies and platforms re-shape the content experience. Well, it looks as though this experiment has come to an end.
On their site and their blog, they posted a message to all of their users explaining the reason it is being shutdown. One thing they mentioned was that it became very popular very quickly. Then in a later paragraph they said that “Sage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide.” What it came down to is that they were popular and people loved them. But given the cost of the business they were in, they just couldn’t keep up. Apparently popularity isn’t always a good thing, at least not in this situation.
Some of you are probably wondering why they didn’t try alternative methods for running the business instead of just shutting it down. As it turns out, it sounds like they tried everything they could. They say, “we tried really hard to find a way to keep Stage6 alive, either as its own private entity or by selling it to another company. Ultimately neither of those two scenarios was possible, and we made the hard decision to turn the lights off and cease operation of the service.”
Now that many of you will be without your favorite streaming site, what will be your alternative, if any?
Thanks for the tip Yanksy, arjay, and Google
I never liked Stage6. Their videos take ages to load, use more resources than Flash videos and its search engine sucks.
This is so unexpected, I can barely believe it. Stage6 was the only pace i know of that had high quality movies, and “Pieter” that’s the reason it took so long, videos work well with fast connections. The thing I dont understand is that stage6 was most probably maing enough revenues from ads, etc. So why couldnt they hire more people so they can continue their service? I say the reason behind there close is probably because of the lawsuit against them, maybe they’ll get money from other companies by doing this, and they decided it was worthwhile, i dont know.
looks like i’ll have a bit of editing with my FRee Movies site,sighhhh
[quicksilverscreen.com] is the best place, it links to a lot of Stage6 films but they also have other sources, Stage6 will hurt Quick Silver Screen, but it will still be good.
Stage6 was great especially for high quality videos, after seeing things in HD I’m not sure that I can go back to squinting at youtube sized videos on my LCD screen. It’s just wrong.
No 1080p streaming
You’re certainly not the only one that is surprised by this. Stage6 definitely had a loyal user-base who appreciated what they offered and the high quality movies.
The load time is pretty slow, but the video quality is far superior to a lot of the other alternatives.
Stage6? Never heard of it. Marketing must’ve been an issue.
Stage6 bad management is now the reflex of the future.