Final whistle for Stadia: From January 2023 it will be over.
Update from January 18, 2023: Today is the end! Stadia is being retired by Google. If you are one of the users affected by the setting, you will find all information about refunds, game statuses and Co. in this updated service article.
If you’re impatient, here’s a direct link to the important questions:
Original message: Google Stadia is finally history: the lights will go out on January 18, 2023 and operations will be completely discontinued. The group officially announced this on September 29, 2022 – the experimental game streaming failed for the time being. We explain what the reasons are and what happens to your spent money and your saves if you have used Stadia.
Too much effort, not enough interest
Google’s Vice President Phil Harrison has one blog post written about the end of Stadia. In it he clearly names the lack of interest in the service as the reason for the end:
While Stadia’s approach to game streaming was built on a strong technological foundation, it hasn’t caught on with users as much as we would have expected, so we made the difficult decision to end our Stadia streaming service.
However, one does not want to get out of the games business completely, but to use the technology on which Stadia is based in other areas. Harrison cites YouTube, Google Play and augmented reality projects as possible examples. The market for the latter is developing rapidly:
First time in use
Working augmented reality contact lens
Stadia has struggled to grab gamers’ attention since launch, but never managed to get past a small niche. To date, cloud gaming has not caught on on a large scale, although the basic idea sounds quite interesting: In theory, you can also use it to run extremely hardware-hungry games on weak systems. However, Stadia’s success has been held back by several factors:
- In order for game streaming to work smoothly, you need a stable and strong internet connection, which is by no means the case everywhere
- The business model stipulated that you had to buy games especially for Stadia again at full price, even if you already owned them, or take out a monthly subscription
- The range of available games was very small compared to Game Pass and Co
- Many users have long expressed doubts about how long Stadia will be around, so many were hesitant about their purchases
Our tech expert Sören explains in his column how Stadia ran itself into the wall:
more on the subject
Not the technology, but the business model killed Stadia
As Bloomberg journalist and industry expert Jason Schreier reports, Google has invested enormous sums in the Stadia games: With larger brands such as Red Dead Redemption 2 or Assassin’s Creed, there is talk of tens of millions of dollars per title:
link to Twitter content
Stadia was already struggling with low user numbers in 2021, but at that time Google still emphasized that they wanted to expand the offer with a big offensive. However, the in-house development studio Stadia Games & Entertainment was closed in February 2021, even before a single game was developed there:
10:30
Why is Google’s gaming offensive over before it even begins? – Stadia closes its development studio before even a game is released
What about my money?
The good news first: All Stadia purchases are automatically refundedthat you have made through the Google Store. Whether it’s hardware (Stadia controllers, etc.) or games. The refunds are to be made by mid-January 2023. You do not have to return purchased devices.
Should you Pro-Abo You will not get these contributions back, but you can continue to use your games as usual until January 18, 2023 and no longer pay subscription fees.
All pre-orders have been automatically canceled and the Stadia Store is now closed. Fifa 23 will therefore not be available via Stadia streaming as planned. This also means that from now on you will no longer be able to make in-game purchases via Stadia.
If you pre-ordered Fifa 23 from Stadia, your order will be automatically canceled and returned.
What about my saves?
According to Google, you can only take it to another platform if the title supports cross-progression and you also own it on the other platform. In all other cases, all of your progress will be lost.
However, several developer studios have now spoken up and say they want to try to transfer your games from Stadia.
Ubisoft: On Twitter it is said that they are currently working on transferring purchased games from Stadia to Ubisoft Connect, i.e. the in-house launcher. There is no concrete announcement as to how and when this should work.
link to Twitter content
Bungie: At the Destiny 2 developer you will less concrete. Discussions are currently being held about player accounts and will be in touch once an action plan has been drawn up.
IO Interactive: The Hitman makers announce at Twitterto listen to the fans and to work on transferring your Stadia saves to another platform.
Apparently, not all game developers who had planned releases there were informed in advance about the end of Stadia. On Twitter, author Paul Tassi shares two reactions from surprised developers:
link to Twitter content
Are you surprised by the end of Stadia? Have you ever used the streaming service? Would cloud gaming on a large scale be something that interests you in general? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments!
