Google is exiting the cloud gaming business and discontinuing its Stadia service.
Google will discontinue the Stadia cloud gaming service on January 18, 2023. Phil Harrison, who is responsible for Stadia at Google, announced this on the company’s blog. The end of the Google gaming streaming service was already in the offing when Logitech announced its new cloud gaming handheld, and Stadia wasn’t there.
According to Harrison, the service 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.”
Google also refunds all customers their money. This applies to all Stadia hardware purchased via the Google Store, as well as all games and additional content purchased via the Stadia Store. However, refunds will take some time. Google hopes the refunds will be complete by mid-January 2023, in time for the service’s retirement. Google still wants to comment on the country-specific refund options.
Google has a FAQ detailing how refunds will work. In the simplest case, these are carried out automatically without the user having to do anything. Google also offers the export of the data that users have accumulated with Stadia. The corresponding entry can be found at takeout.google.com.
The team members behind Stadia will work in other areas of the company, Google said. The company sees opportunities to use Stadia’s technology in other areas, mentioning YouTube, Google Play and AR glasses. Another way to recoup the investment could be to license the technology.
With Stadia, Google wanted to create its own gaming service in competition with cloud gaming alternatives from Microsoft, Sony or Nvidia and at the same time compete with the game consoles. The Stadia app was available for Android and iOS, but current games should also be played via browser and thus also on Google’s cheap Chromebooks. Stadia was available in two versions — Stadia and Stadia Pro.
