The cloud gaming service by Google, known as Stadia, will be shut down on January 18, 2023.
Until this time, the service will remain live for all players. Refunds for all hardware bought through the Google Store, in addition to games and DLC bought from the Stadia will be rolling out in the next few months.
Stadia has tried to be the Netflix of video games but has been an overall failure. It allows users to stream video games at resolutions of up to 4K HDR at 60 FPS directly to any device with an Internet connection and access to a dedicated application.
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The biggest issue with the service, outside a limited library of titles and struggles to secure exclusivity deals with big publishers, was forcing people to pay a monthly subscription to access games they had to purchase through the service. This means that even if you already have a game you want to stream with Stadia in your Steam library, you would not be able to use the service unless the game itself was bought through Stadia.
Such issues have already been solved for years by other competitors. One of the best examples includes NVIDIA GeForce Now, which connects multiple stores, including Steam, to the service.
According to Phil Harrison, vice president and general manager of the consumer gaming service stated that although “Stadia was built on a solid technology foundation, it failed to gain traction” with enough users.
Rumors of a shutdown began as early as 2021, in which the company began closing major in-house development studios. Surprisingly, Google denied all claims of a shutdown just a few months ago until making this recent announcement.
