Reports of Google looking to wind down its game streaming service Stadia have been going around for some time now, but now it has become official. In a blog post, Google today announced it is shutting down the service that only went online in late 2019.
"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 vice president and general manager Phil Harrison.
It will be quite a fast shut down too, with players only having access to their game libraries until January 18, 2023, which is when the servers will go offline. Google will be refunding all hardware purchases (Stadia Controller, Founders Edition, Premiere Edition, and Play and Watch with Google TV packages) from the Google Store as well as any game and DLC purchases from the Stadia store.
Stadia Pro subscription payments are not a part of the refund process. Further details on the refunding procedures can be found in this Support FAQ.
"We remain deeply committed to gaming, and we will continue to invest in new tools, technologies and platforms that power the success of developers, industry partners, cloud customers and creators," Harrison added.
Stadia's gaming side may be dying but Google is hopeful that the technology can be applied to other parts of the company, such as YouTube, Google Play, and Augmented Reality, as well as third party efforts from other partners.
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