The cloud gaming service “Stadia” by Google is shutting down: The project will be closed in just a few months.
When is Stadia closing? Google will shut down its cloud gaming service “Stadia” on January 18, 2023. By then, the service should still be accessible. This was confirmed by Phil Harrison, Vice President and General Manager of the Stadia project, in a statement (via Google Blog).
What happens to my purchases? According to the statement, Google will refund all hardware purchases made through the Google Store. The same applies to all games and DLCs purchased through the Stadia Store.
The refunds are expected to be processed by mid-January 2023.
Until the deadline on January 18, 2023, players should still have access to their libraries to complete their games. Then Google Stadia will be shut down – just a little over three years after the launch on November 19, 2019.
“Did not find the support we expected”
Why is Stadia closing? In the statement, Harrison briefly addresses the reasons for the decision: “Although Stadia’s approach of streaming games to consumers was built on a strong technological foundation, it did not find the support among users that we expected, leading us to make the difficult decision to shut down our Stadia streaming service.”
Stadia was originally introduced as a new competitor to the big established gaming platforms like PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
With Stadia, players were supposed to be able to stream their games to all sorts of compatible smartphones, PCs, laptops, tablets, or TVs – based on a fast internet connection.
However, the system apparently never took off in the way Google had hoped.
Well-known gaming insider Jason Schreier reported in early 2021 that Google invested very large sums into the system and ports of popular games like Assassins Creed and The Division. On Twitter, Schreier emphasized this again regarding the current shutdown:
However, at least the technology behind Stadia is expected to live on in other projects.
What happens to the Stadia technology?
As Harrison explains in the statement, the technology behind Stadia has proven itself and would extend beyond gaming: “We see clear opportunities to apply this technology in other areas of Google such as YouTube, Google Play, and our augmented reality (AR) efforts – and also to provide it to our industry partners, which we believe represents the future of gaming.”
We want to stay true to gaming and continue to work on new tools and technologies to promote the field: “For the Stadia team, building and supporting Stadia has always been driven by the same passion for games that our players have. Many of the members of the Stadia team will continue this work in other areas of the company.”
Back in early 2022, a possible restructuring of Stadia was discussed, such as making the technology available to other developers while the pure gaming aspect should take a back seat. This step now seems to be finally taking place.
