Despite claims to the contrary as recently as July, Google is shutting down its Stadia games streaming service after all. The company says players will have access to their games and be able to play them until January 18, 2023. After that, Stadia will join the long, long list of products that have been killed by Google.
Those who have invested money into Stadia will be fully reimbursed. “We will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store,” Google wrote in a blog post. “We expect to have the majority of refunds completed by mid-January, 2023. We have more details for players on this process on our Help Center.”
The reasoning behind the “difficult decision” isn’t surprising. Google said the service “hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected.” It’s a shame, since the streaming tech at the core of Stadia works really well and the service had a passionate, if small, community.
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