Google is shutting down Stadia on January 18, 2023. This news comes as a shock to the gaming community, as Stadia was one of the most promising new platforms. Google is giving all Stadia buyers a refund. They say that members of the team will be carrying this work forward in other departments at google, which sounds like they’re being taken off into another department.
According to Stadia’s vice president and GM, Phil Harrison, Google plans on applying Stadia’s technology in other areas of their business, such as YouTube and AR efforts. They also view this as an opportunity for partnership opportunities that align with where gaming is heading – which will likely become even more important going forward with tied generations becoming a thing!
See Also: Best Google Stadia Alternatives
Stadia launched in November 2019 and allowed gamers to stream games directly from the cloud. The service had a strong start, with a library of over 100 games and support from major publishers like Ubisoft and EA.
However, Stadia struggled to maintain its momentum, and by early 2020 it was clear that the platform was in trouble. Google failed to attract enough users or developers, and many of the games on Stadia were poor ports of existing titles.
With its future in doubt, Google announced that it is shutting down Stadia on January 18, 2023. This news came as a blow to the many gamers who were hoping that Stadia would be a viable alternative to traditional console gaming.
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While it’s sad to see Stadia go, we would like to thank Google for their efforts in trying to create a new and innovative gaming platform. We hope that other companies will learn from Google’s mistakes and build upon the foundation that they have laid.
Google Stadia continues to make progress on player refunds. They are expected by mid-January, 2023 for the majority of requests and have detailed information available in their Help Center if you want more details!
