Google stadia will be shutting down next year and all purchases will be refunded.
Google Stadia Will Be Shutting Down Next Year
The cloud gaming service of Google is set to be making way on January 18, 2023, the search engine giants said on Thursday. The tech company is also set to make a refund to all the purchased hardware via the Google store alongside all the games and add-on content that is bought from the stadia store. The company is aiming to have all the refunds to be completed by the middle of January.
The vice president and general manager of stadia, Phil Harrison when explaining the move in a blog post highlights the investment of Google in gaming via its Google play digital distribution service that is streaming on both YouTube and its cloud tech.
Vice President And General Manager of Stadia’s Comment on the Development
“A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia,” he stated. “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.”
The blog post also noted that many of the employees on the stadia team will be reassigned and moved to other roles within the organization. The service was launched back in November 2019 to a mixed reception from both fans and critics.
Scott Stein of CNET’s Assessment at the Time of Its Launch
“Stadia isn’t delivering new games [at the moment], it’s just trying to deliver a new way to play through streaming. One that you can already get from other providers,” Scott Stein of CNET at the time wrote. “Until Google finds a way to loop in YouTube and develop truly unique competitive large-scale games, Stadia isn’t worth your time yet.”
Google Shuttered Its In-House Development Studio Back In 2021
And although having some really solid games in its library, the platform failed to make a name in the wake of its launch. The tech company shuttered its in-house development studio back in 2021, stating that its gaming ambitions were moving away from stadia. Stadia had many cloud gaming completion with the likes of Amazon, Nvidia, PlayStation, and Xbox all offering alternatives.
However, it has not been a total bust-up for the company, with Harrison saying that the tech can be easily applied to Google Play, YouTube, and even its Augmented Reality (AR) projects.
The Tech behind Stadia Will Be Made Available To the Industry Partners of Google
One thing you should also know is that the tech also will be made available to industry partners of Google. Sony back in 2015 gave its very own streaming service a head start by purchasing the patents of OnLive which at the time was an early game streaming service shortly before the shutdown of the startup that once promised great things.
