Google Stadia stops, starts refunding users

Google has announced that it will discontinue its Stadia game streaming service. Users of the service will be refunded. The plug is immediately removed from the Stadia Store.

Google Stadia stops

Google once bet so hard on its own gaming service Google Stadia. The service was launched in 2019. That service will cease to exist, the company has announced. According to Google, the technology behind Stadia works well, and therefore wants to integrate it into other services such as YouTube. However, the service in its current form has not been able to achieve the success that Google had in mind. The number of players in particular fell short of expectations.

Google will shut down Stadia altogether on January 18. The Stadia Store can no longer be reached immediately. Until January 18, only the purchased items can still be played. New add-ons and additions can no longer be purchased. They get back all the money that users have put into Stadia; both the games, the additions and the hardware, if these were purchased through the Google Store. Hardware does not have to be returned.

The company provides more information in the questions section of the FAQ.