Source: Drew Angerer / Getty
It took long enough. Google Stadia, Google’s cloud gaming service, is being shut down.
Google dropped the unsurprising news in a blog post announcing that people who, for whatever reason, are on the service can continue to play games on Google Stadia until January 18th, 2023.
Anyone who purchased Google Stadia hardware, games, and add-ons through the Google Store will get a refund from Google, and the tech giant expects those refunds to be completed by mid-January. Stadia Pro subscriptions will not be eligible for a refund but will not be charged as the service begins its shutdown process.
“A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia,” Stadia vice president and GM Phil Harrison said in a blog post. “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.”
Harrison points out in the blog post hints at Google taking Stadia’s technology and applying to other Google properties like YouTube, Google Play, and its AR technology. Harrison also says Google plans to “make it available to our industry partners, which aligns with where we see the future of gaming headed.”
The news of Google Stadia finally being shut down is not surprising to anyone in the gaming community. Since its first announcement and launch, people began counting the days until Google stuck a fork in the service.
Welp, there’s always Amazon Luna, we guess.
Of course, there are more reactions to the news of Google Stadia FINALLY being tossed in the trash bin. You can peep all of them in the gallery below.
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Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty