Google is rumored to be discontinuing the Stadia platform, their cloud gaming service in the near future. In fact, the age of the service is still not even three years old after it was officially launched by Google on November 19, 2019.
However, prior to closing on January 18, 2023, these users will still be able to access the service. Google will refund all Stadia hardware purchased through the Google Store as well as all additional games and content purchased from the Stadia Store. Google expects the refund to be completed by mid-January.
“A few years ago, we launched our consumer gaming service, Stadia,” Stadia vice president and GM Phil Harrison said in a blog.
“And while Stadia's approach to consumer-only game streaming is built on a solid technological foundation, it hasn't gained the traction with the users we hoped for so we've made the difficult decision to start discontinuing our Stadia streaming service.” Reporting from The Verge (30/9), employees on the Stadia team will be distributed to other parts of the company.
Harrison said Google saw an opportunity to apply Stadia technology to other parts of Google, such as YouTube, Google Play, and its AR efforts, and the company also plans to “make it available to our industry partners, in line with where we see the future of gaming,” he said. .
Google details the key points of the closure on the website. Refunds will be made automatically via Google and the Stadia Store, and users do not need to return any hardware.
Stadia Pro subscriptions will not be eligible for a refund, but users will not be charged during the deactivation period and can access games that may have been redeemed as Pro users until all of them are terminated. Google has closed the Stadia Store, so users cannot purchase games or in-game transactions.
Signs of Stadia's demise have been around for some time now, most recently when Logitech announced its new cloud gaming device last week and Stadia was one of the few cloud gaming services not mentioned. Google has a habit of stopping projects just a few years after launch, and Stadia looks like the next candidate.
Last year, there were rumors that the service would be shutting down after the number of games released to the platform slowed and companies shut down development of their own games. When the rumors surfaced again this year, Google insisted that Stadia would not shut down. “Rest assured we are always working to bring more quality games to the platform and Stadia Pro,” Google said at the time. But eventually Stadia will be discontinued.
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