Stadia rolled out last week, but some users are already reporting a significant issue relating to the Chromecast Ultra that reduces playtime.

Multiple posts on Reddit and Twitter suggest Google's media player can't keep up with games, 9to5Google notes. It appears that the Chromecast Ultra gets far too hot while Stadia runs, and thus the media player shuts down to avoid any damage to internal components. Now, users are wondering why the Chromecast Ultra fails to handle a few hours of playtime despite its reliance on the cloud rather than on-device processing.

The issue isn't difficult to identify. Touch your Chromecast Ultra while it's running Stadia, and you'll immediately know if the unit is hot or not. In some cases, users say the Chromecast Ultra shuts down after as little as ten minutes. That's alarming as other platforms can typically run for hours without any problems.

Google, however, doesn't seem all that concerned. Support representatives are telling users the Chromecast Ultra performs as intended.

"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," one representative stated. "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."

Inside, the Chromecast Ultra stores energy-efficient components. The design is enough for video streaming, but maybe Stadia requires such a large amount of data to be sent and received nonstop that the hardware can't stay on top of everything. Stadia pulls several megabytes of data every second, according to Android Authority.

Don't expect any software update to fix this. If the Chromecast Ultra is underpowered, only upgraded hardware can prevent it from shutting down due to Stadia. The platform does run fine on supported Pixel phones and the Chrome web browser, but the Chromecast Ultra is the only way to play on a TV right now.

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