After just three years, Google is shutting down its Stadia game streaming service, the company announced today. Players can continue to play and access games in their Stadia library until January 18, 2023, when the servers shut down for good. Stadia users will also have until January to export their account data and save files. You can learn more about the decision to shutter the game streaming service in the latest Google blog post.
“A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia,” explains Stadia Vice President and General Manager, Phil Harrison. “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.”
Google will be issuing refunds to those who purchased Stadia hardware through the Google Store along with any content purchases made through the Stadia store. Google expects to issue the majority of refunds by mid-January of next year.
“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.”
Those looking for details on the phasing out of Stadia should check out the dedicated FAQ page regarding today’s announcement. Stay tuned to Guide Stash for more gaming news and updates.