How many people get to exclaim that they called it? Because in January 2023, Google will be shutting down Stadia, its cloud streaming game service. Stadia launched back in 2019, and allowed users to purchase games through the service, and have them streamed to their device via the cloud. It also offered a subscription service that cost $10 a month, and featured 4K resolution support and a library of free games each month.

Things began to get shaky for Stadia in early 2021, following the departure of the project's VP, and then the prompt closing of all internal Stadia game development studios. After the decision to not develop any indie games in-house after that, it was reported that Google paid "ten of millions" of dollars to secure AAA Stadia ports. Back in July of this year, the official Stadia Twitter account assured fans that it was not shutting down amidst rumors and reports that the opposite was true.

Google's reasoning behind shutting down Stadia is that it never gained the traction that the company expected it to. Anyone who has purchased any Stadia games will have until January 18, 2023 to play them, and after which, the service will be shuttered. Customers that made any purchases, whether it was Stadia games, add-on content, or even hardware, will be fully refunded by the end of January 2023.

We’re grateful to the dedicated Stadia players that have been with us from the start. 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. Players will continue to have access to their games library and play through January 18, 2023 so they can complete final play sessions. 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 underlying technology platform that powers Stadia has been proven at scale and transcends gaming. 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. We remain deeply committed to gaming, and we will continue to invest in new tools, technologies and platforms that power the success of developers, industry partners, cloud customers and creators.

Source

 

[ShadowOne333]

Tbh all kinds of "cloud streaming" services should be terminated for good.
They do nothing but harm the user with the idiocy of gaming while relying on shady internet connections, and let's not talk about the DRM implications here.

 

[AlexMCS]

They lasted that long? Color me surprised.

 

[CoolMe]

Just goes to show that this could happen at any point in time, even if the service was doing decently..

 

[LainaGabranth]

imagine buying this shit LOL

 

[K3Nv2]

Lmao

 

[CraddaPoosta]

I don't feel bad about this at all.

One of the reasons I cancelled PS+ years ago was because of their fierce, throbbing blue-veiner for exploiting indie game studios. I didn't buy a PS4 to play 99-cent iPhone ports. If I wanted an indie console, I would buy one.

Now they HAD several that are supposed to appeal to all of these indie developer lovers, and ALL of them have failed, because gamers do not want this to be the main focus of the console. Yes, there are AAA indie titles. But that isn't why you bought a PS5, and if you are an Android gamer, that isn't why you dropped more than a thousand dollars on your phone.

Shovelware and indie garbage are the exact same things as what caused the video game crash of 1983, and we're seeing history repeat itself.

 

[CeeDee]

LMFAO

(good they're refunding customers though)

 

[X3gold]

Tbh all kinds of "cloud streaming" services should be terminated for good.
They do nothing but harm the user with the idiocy of gaming while relying on shady internet connections, and let's not talk about the DRM implications here.

So a nonsense I and others can not necessarily afford a PC for a few thousand there is the cloud alternative really handy as in my case GeForce Now.

 

[LainaGabranth]

So what happens to all the fucking native Ubuntu ports of games on their service that still aren't released, like Destiny 2? Just gonna rot on some hard disk?

 

[Jazty]

Man... Why Do So Many PC Gamer Noobs Fall For These Type Of Scams?

 

[Bladexdsl]

logitechs device will be joining them next. cloud gaming will never catch on because it's basically paying full price to RENT games you never own

 

[hippy dave]

The shutdown is not a shocker in the slightest, but full refunds on everything is nice at least.

 

[LainaGabranth]

The shutdown is not a shocker in the slightest, but full refunds on everything is nice at least.

Yeah, Google could have easily just shut it down without any warning or refund. At least they're not purely scummy.

 

[Kioku]

Going to level with you... This is great news. Sorry for those who may lose their jobs, but cloud-based gaming is already annoying. To build an entire platform around it is as anti-consumer one can get. It'd be different if the games you bought were tied to your personal gaming accounts (Steam, Origin, etc.) and not a whole new platform with a separate identity and library. This was a stupid move and I'm glad it's shutting down. I just hope this isn't a precursor for another cloud-based gaming service with a "new" and "updated" infrastructure.

I remember getting a free Chromecast and controller with my YTPremium account. It gave me a chance to test this service and I hated every waking second of it.

 

[LightBeam]

Only GeForce Now and xCloud that are pretty good. Stadia was such a mess and way too expensive. And didn't ran that good to begin with, so the price wasn't really justified.
As other have said, a entirely new service based around cloud gaming is stupid. xCloud is tied to a gamepass subscription and your Xbox account with the whole Xbox ecosystem around, GeForce now allows you to play the games you own on other services such as Steam, that's why they work better than Stadia.

 

[The Catboy]

Wow, the thing everyone said would happen, happened

 

[DKB]

Shocker.

 

[nWo]

At least they are refunding.

All cloud services on gaming are pure SHIT.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

Microsoft still is betting a lot on their cloud thing. Also they don't sell shit, but push monthly fees a lot too. This is the big danger for our beloved hobby right now, since stadia died.