Google shuttering cloud gaming service Stadia
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Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is shutting down Stadia, its high-profile jump into cloud videogaming, and refunding purchases of hardware and games.
Stadia's approach to streaming games was built on strong technology, but "it hasn't gained the traction with users that we expected so weâve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service," Stadia General Manager Phil Harrison says.
The platform was proven at scale and it "transcends gaming," he said. "We see clear opportunities to apply this technology across other parts of Google like YouTube, Google Play, and our Augmented Reality efforts â as well as make it available to our industry partners, which aligns with where we see the future of gaming headed."
The company will refund all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store as well as all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store.
Players will continue to have access to their games library through Jan. 18, and Google expects to have the majority of refunds done by mid-January as well.
Google had shut down internal game development at the service in February 2021, choosing instead to focus on the gaming platform. It had announced the service in spring 2019.