Google Stadia to be shut down in January
29.9.2022
Translation: machine translated
The cloud gaming service Google Stadia is being discontinued after around three years. Purchases will be refunded.
In the end, the sceptics were right. With Google Stadia, the search giant is discontinuing another service after a short lifetime. The cloud gaming service was unveiled with much fanfare in 2018. Industry veteran Phil Harrison took the reins of the project. Google specially founded its own studio under the leadership of Jade Raymond, who made a name for herself by working on "Assassin's Creed". In the meantime, her new studio Haven Entertainment belongs to Sony.
Google's efforts were too little, respectively could not attract the desired amount of users. In a blog post on Thursday evening, Harrison therefore announced the end of the cloud gaming service. On 19 January 2023, Google Stadia will shut down and all hardware, add-on and game purchases will be refunded
.
Technology will live on
Harrison goes on to write that many Google Stadium employees will be dispersed to other projects in the company. What will happen to the rest is unclear. He said that Stadia's technology will continue to be used in YouTube, Google Play, AR projects as well as for industry partners
.
Google may not have made the cloud gaming breakthrough it wanted with Stadia, but it has fuelled competitors like Amazon Luna and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Also, the new cloud gaming handhelds like the Logitech G Cloud or the teased 5G device from Razer show that the belief in a game streaming future is unwavering.
Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
philipp.rueegg@digitecgalaxus.chBeing the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.