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Yahoo Games Channel being discontinued

Postby Henrik » February 13th, 2016, 2:32 am

Hey everyone, this message was sent to all developers that have at least one game published on Yahoo Games:


As part of our efforts to simplify the core business at Yahoo, we’ve had to take a hard look at our existing products and services. We have decided to discontinue the Yahoo Games site and publishing channel (aka The Yahoo Games Channel Program).

On Monday, March 14, 2016 we will:
* Stop accepting in-game purchases.
* Notify users that the Yahoo Games site will be shut down on Friday, May 13, 2016, but that they can still enjoy playing all their games until then.

Starting today, Yahoo will allow you to migrate users from Yahoo Games to the channel of your choice, e.g. your own website, Facebook, or any other similar gaming platform. We strongly encourage you to take this opportunity, since it will allow you to keep your valuable users after the shutdown. The exact method of migrating a user is of course highly dependent on which other channels your game is published on, and how you have integrated your game, but we will be available to you during this time to answer questions.

IT IS IMPORTANT THAT ON MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2016, you include in-product messaging in your Games notifying users that your game will no longer be offered on Yahoo Games on Friday, May 13, 2016 and relevant information relating to any options you will be providing users in connection with the discontinuation of your game on Yahoo, including options relating to in-game purchases. The message can include the option to move to users to another channel, to receive refunds or like-kind credits for use in other games, or such other information as you see fit. Feel free to also include a link or process to migrate users to another platform.

If you believe it would be in your best interest to offer large scale refunds to your players then please notify us in writing by Monday, March 14, 2016.

For any questions, please email us at gamesnet@yahoo-inc.com.

Thank you from Yahoo!
Henrik
.IO
 
Posts: 1880
Joined: January 4th, 2010, 1:53 pm

Re: Yahoo Games Channel being discontinued

Postby Henrik » February 13th, 2016, 2:54 am

The above announcement only affects those parts of the Backend Services that are related (e.g. the Canvas, the Payments, and the Yahoo profiles and friends systems). This does not affect your ability to use the other services (e.g. BigDB, PayVault, and GameFS).

On a technical level, we will remove those parts of the SDK, i.e. all the PlayerIO.Yahoo.* methods and classes, and the Yahoo PayVault provider and Authentication provider. Calling any of those methods after the Yahoo Games Channel has been discontinued will simply return an appropriate error code.
Henrik
.IO
 
Posts: 1880
Joined: January 4th, 2010, 1:53 pm

Re: Yahoo Games Channel being discontinued

Postby robscherer123 » February 13th, 2016, 3:32 am

Thanks for the info Henrik, I've been waiting for some official word. This isn't really too big of a deal to me, as I didn't get around to publishing my game with Yahoo Games yet or any of the Yahoo API.

The big question that me and I think everyone still has however, is what does this spell for the future of the PlayerIO services? You mentioned the backend services will still be up for now, but will it still be alive and well for a long time? Will there be changes? Is it at risk for shutting down as well? Will it be sold? Any info would be great.

Thanks!
robscherer123
Paid Member
 
Posts: 313
Joined: December 12th, 2012, 8:46 pm

Re: Yahoo Games Channel being discontinued

Postby robertflesch » February 16th, 2016, 3:19 pm

Shouldn't this be an "ANNOUNCEMENT", rather then hidden in feedback?

Rob - this is always the risk of using someone's service. Esp when its a large company.
With out their own games, how long can it last?
robertflesch
Paid Member
 
Posts: 136
Joined: April 22nd, 2013, 9:18 pm


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