Google To Shut Down Stadia Game Streaming Service, 3 Years After Launch

Google has announced that they’re going to shut down Stadia game streaming service on 18th January, 2023 as they didn’t have as much engagement as expected.

Google has declared that it will be shutting down its Stadia game streaming service. On January 18, 2023, the American tech juggernaut will officially cease operations. 

According to GSM Arena, the business would provide customers a refund on all hardware and software purchases. 

Refunds will be given to those who bought the Stadia controller. The refunds will probably be finished by January 2023.

The corporation claims that the technology behind Stadia will also be used by other divisions of the corporation, including Google Play, YouTube, and its augmented reality (AR) initiatives. 

Due to the company’s propensity to shut down ventures that don’t take off right away, Google Stadia was met with immediate industry skepticism when it was introduced in 2019. 

Many people also criticized the expensive price of games, given that the consumer did not directly own them, as well as the poor library.

Stadia premiered in November 2019 with popular third-party titles such as Destiny 2 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, however it was met with mixed reviews. The business made significant investments in Stadia in an effort to connect with gamers.

The IT company Google has said, “It hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected so we have made the difficult decision to begin shutting down our Stadia streaming service.”

Google had thrown a splashy launch event for Stadia. But now the company is going to terminate Stadia within less than 3 years.

Though Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia are still committed to their services, Stadia’s failure doesn’t necessarily indicate the demise of cloud gaming as a whole. 

According to GSM Arena, the streaming service was always going to be a long-term expenditure for these corporations. However, Google isn’t interested in making such a commitment.