Google will refund all Stadia purchases, including hardware, software, and DLC. Members of the Stadia team will “carry this work forward” in other Google departments.
Stadia, Google’s cloud gaming service, is being decommissioned. Players will be able to use the service until January 18th, 2023.
Google will refund all Stadia hardware purchased through the Google Store, as well as all Stadia games and add-on content. Google anticipates that the refunds will be completed by mid-January.
“A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia,” Stadia vice president and GM Phil Harrison said in a blog.
“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.”
Employees on the Stadia team will be distributed to other parts of the company.
Harrison says Google sees opportunities to apply Stadia’s technology to other parts of Google, like YouTube, Google Play, and its AR efforts, and the company also plans to “make it available to our industry partners, which aligns with where we see the future of gaming headed,” he wrote.
Google clarified some of the finer points of the shutdown. Refunds will be issued automatically through the Google and Stadia stores, and you will not be required to return any hardware.
Stadia Pro subscriptions will not be refunded, but you will not be charged during the shutdown period and will be able to access any games you may have redeemed as a Pro user until everything is shut down. Google has shut down the Stadia store, so you can’t buy games or make in-game purchases.
The writing has been on the wall for Stadia for quite some time, most recently when Logitech announced its new cloud gaming handheld last week, with Stadia being one of the few cloud gaming services that was not mentioned.
Stadia, on the other hand, has been troubled by rumors of its downfall since its inception.
Stadia, a cloud gaming service from a company with few ties to the gaming industry, appeared to be a prime candidate for an early demise.
To read our blog on “Google Is Giving Free $130 Stadia Gaming kits To New Verizon Fios Subscribers,” click here