Remember 2019? The world hadn’t ended yet, Iron Man was still alive and Google had just announced Stadia. Just a couple of months later the world was thrown into lockdown. We’re not saying Stadia did that, but the timing seems too convenient for Google. Now, three years later and Google has announced the end of Stadia.
Goodbye Stadia
“A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia. And while Stadia’s approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a strong technology foundation, it hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected so we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service,” said Stadia VP Phil Harrison.
By “winding down” Google means getting rid of it entirely. The cloud service will stick around until 18 January 2023. After that, no more Stadia. Of course, the five people who purchased games on the service will be getting refunds. That’s only fair. If you’re one of the few who are getting refunded, expect that to come through in mid-January. The hardware is yours to keep, though Stadia Pro subscriptions will not be refunded. You won’t be charged again and will have access to the games under the Pro banner until the service dies.
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Unfortunately for Stadia’s game developers, Google failed to warn them of the service’s impending doom. Multiple developers learned of the service’s demise through the news spreading across the Internet this morning.
Tangle Tower was due to launch on Stadia in 2 days time, and this article was the first I heard about it shutting down 😢 https://t.co/Pu0UPTQlRn
— Tom Vian (@SFBTom) September 29, 2022
Google has said that Stadia won’t be completely wasted. Its technology will be applied to other parts of Google, YouTube and Google Play, though we aren’t exactly sure what that would look like.