Google has killed Stadia nearly three years after launching the failed cloud service.
The news comes from an official post on the official Google blog. Phil Harrison, the Vice President and GM of Stadia confirmed that the service will close in January 2023.
“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,” says Harrison.
“We’re grateful to the dedicated Stadia players that have been with us from the start. We will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store. Players will continue to have access to their games library and play through January 18, 2023, so they can complete the final play sessions. We expect to have the majority of refunds completed by mid-January, 2023.”
The technology powering Stadia will be used in other technologies across Google including YouTube and Augmented Reality — as well as make it available to industry partners.
I’ve loved the technology behind Stadia for a while now but the writing was on the walls, with most of the internal staff being let go last year and moving on to other studios.
Rumours of Stadia’s demise have swirled for months and Google is known for launching and then terminating projects shortly into their lifespan. Now, with the tech likely to be salvaged for other uses, its a shame the product that seemed to find its niche will shutter.
In July, Stadia’s Twitter account said the service was not shutting down and that it would be bringing “more great games to the platform.”
Harrison confirms that it will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store. Players will continue to have access to their games library and play through January 18, 2023.
Google Stadia’s servers will officially close at 11:59 PM PT / 2:59 AM ET on January 19th.
