It’s official: Google Stadia is shutting down and shutting down its servers in January 2023. Everyone who owns games on the platform they will see the amount refunded and can continue playing until Google disconnects the servers early next year. Bad news for those who have entrusted their games to cloud gaming.
When Google announced Stadia, a cloud gaming platform, everything seemed to indicate that streaming entertainment could be extended to the general public beyond music and movies. The platform offered free titles to Pro users, maintained a large catalog of news and allowed the magic to play AAA without heart attack hardware. Even from a mobile. Unfortunately, it’s all over.
Google will refund all money invested in software and hardware
Red Dead Redemption 2 on Stadia
It’s official and endorsed by Google itself in an article on its blog: Stadia is closing. Farewell to the most ambitious video game streaming platform, the one that promised to bring the most complete experience to even the most limited devices. Android, web browser, iPhone and iPad, computers… Nothing stood up to Google Stadia. Well, yes: increase the number of users.
Rumors had been anticipating the platform shutting down for months, even after the post-launch grace period. Stadia officials flatly denied the middle finger. Until reality forces them to show their faces:
“It hasn’t gained the traction with users we’d hoped, so we’ve made the difficult decision to start terminating our Stadia streaming service.“.
All users will continue to retain access to their games until January 18, 2023.. Currently, it is no longer possible to make purchases through the Stadia store, new games, or Pro service. The support page confirms that all servers will be shut down on January 18, 2023.
In terms of player investment in the platform, Stadia will refund the full amount of games, including add-ons and DLCs. Hardware will also be refunded: everyone who bought a first or a Stadia controller they will receive the money without having to return the devices.
All refunds will take place over the next few months. Google Stadia believes that will be completed by mid-2023. And for anyone who has games on the platform, the best thing is to finish them: they will have no way to transfer the progress unless the video game developers have activated the game sharing mode.
More information | Google
