Google is pulling the plug on Stadia, its game streaming service. The company says that nearly three years after its launch, the service hasn’t been able to attract the desired number of gamers.
Stadia was an attempt by Google to compete with consoles such as Playstation and Xbox. Via Stadia, gamers played via the cloud on their smartphone or television. Stadia was announced in March 2019 and has also been officially available in Belgium since November 2019. At that time, cloud gaming was still a technological feat, but it never came to large-scale adoption.
Since the own Google game studio closed its doors last year, it was already clear that the future of Stadia did not look positive. Rumours about the imminent end of Stadia repeatedly surfaced, especially after Google itself indicated that the future of Stadia mainly lay in white-label partnerships.
Subscribers will still be able to play their purchased and claimed games until January 18, but it’s finally done with Stadia. Anyone who bought the Stadia hardware (controller and Chromecast) through the Google Store will receive a refund. Google also promises to fully refund the purchased games, although it is still a while for an additional explanation about the procedure to be followed.
Google also indicates in a blog post that it still sees opportunities to use the technology behind Stadia elsewhere. This is possible, for example, with the YouTube video platform, the Google Play app store, or augmented reality projects. But Stadia as a brand will have a place in the already well-filled Google graveyard.
