After three years, Google has announced that it is shutting down its Stadia game streaming service. Though users can still play games, the service will stop working in January 2023. All Stadia hardware, games, and add-on content purchased will be refunded. Google has a long history of killing off products.
Though Stadia has not gained traction with gamers, the tech behind it works very well. The community was also very enthusiastic. But in spite of these issues, Google is still a tech giant and has been known to shut down innovative products, most notably Google Reader, iGoogle, and Google Stadia.
While Stadia was initially expected to be a future service, it is now looking like a flop. Google sold its technology to other businesses and expected many of the Stadia staff to move to other parts of the company.
It also shut down its in-house game studio, which hoped to use the technology to create new games. Google had already poured huge amounts of resources into Stadia, which was designed to be a long-term investment.
Stadia’s future has been in doubt for some time, and fans of the service have been left without a clear path forward. While Google still has a stake in gaming, it will continue to enable game makers and players on YouTube.
The company also says it will refund Stadia hardware and add-on content purchased through its Google store. The refund process is expected to be complete by mid-January. Until then, Stadia players can continue to access the games they purchased through the Stadia store.
