The moment many predicted would happen, has finally happened, Google's game streaming service is shutting down.
Google Stadia was first announced during Google's keynote address back in 2019 and had a rocky start. Google initially offered Stadia for a £119 Founder’s Edition bundle, which included a custom controller, a Chromecast Ultra for streaming games to a TV, and three months of Stadia Pro.
A Stadia Pro subscription was £8.99 a month and included access to several free games that you have access to while you pay for the service. Stadia received a mixed reception at launch with some users struggling to maintain a reliable connection, while other complained of input lag and stutters.
Stadia had some strong titles in the beginning with Destiny 2, PUBG Battlegrounds, GRID, and their own exclusive title Gylt. But things quickly took a turn for the worse, with Google shutting down its internal studios located in Montreal and Los Angeles last year, and also cancelled up-and-coming projects.
Even triple-A titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Doom Eternal were available on the service. However, the free titles added to Stadia Pro, their subscription service, have been lacklustre.
Even Covid and lockdowns with people playing and an unprecedented amount of games weren't quite enough to help Stadia. Phil Harrison, Vice President and General Manager of Stadia confirmed the news in the blog post today.
"A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia," Said Harrison, Vice President and General Manager of Stadia
"And while Stadia's approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a strong technology foundation, it 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 will refund all Stadia hardware purchases through the Google Store & games and add-ons and DLCs through Stadia Store.
Users who bought Stadia Controller, Founders Edition, Premiere Edition, and Play and Watch with Google TV packages through the Google Store will also receive refunds without having to return hardware, However, Stadia Pro subscriptions are not eligible for a refund.
But players can continue with their pro subscriptions without further charges. Stadia will also remain live for players until January 18th, 2023 to allow players to "complete final play sessions". Many players will lose their save progress with the exception of games that cross-progression play on other platforms.
Google also says that some games will experience "gameplay issues during this period, especially any games requiring commerce, but the majority of games should continue to work normally. "
Players can also no longer purchase games or in-game transactions on the stadia Store. Those who received Stadia through a gift card will receive an email from google providing instructions on how to choose a new form of payment.
Google plan on applying the technology used in Stadia to other parts of the company:
"We see clear opportunities to apply this technology across other parts of Google like YouTube, Google Play, and our Augmented Reality (AR) efforts — as well as make it available to our industry partners, which aligns with where we see the future of gaming headed."
People have seen this announcement coming for a long time with Google's refusal to invest in new titles and push further innovation to the platform, however, it did have a small but dedicated following who will no doubt be sad by its ending.
But this isn't the end for cloud gaming with services like Nvidia Geforce Now, Amazon Luna, Sony PlayStation Now and Xbox Cloud gaming still well and truly up and running.
