Stadia stops, Google pulls plug from cloud gaming platform

Google has announced in a blog that it will discontinue its own cloud gaming service Google Stadia.

Google Stadia

Google Stadia can be played via a Chromecast Ultra on your own television or a device with Android TV. In addition, you can play it on your PC via Chrome, on Chromebooks and tablets with Chrome OS and of course the Stadia app itself.

The service debuted as a closed beta with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in October 2018. On November 19, 2019, the service went live in select countries. In April 2020, the free basic service Stadia started.

No success

Right from the start, Google Stadia was met with mixed reviews from critics. Although a number of reviews were very positive, many complained about the platform’s performance. The hoped-for users also did not come due to the lack of major titles on the platform. A service like Stadia may be a technically well-executed platform, but if the big and important games aren’t available, there’s no reason to use it.

In a blog on its own website, Google announced today that it will discontinue this cloud gaming service.

..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.

In January 2023, the service will stop and games will no longer be played and the Store will be closed. Anyone who purchased hardware through the Google Store and games through the Stadia Store will get their money back.

Like any Google service that is discontinued (and there are quite a few), the underlying technology will find its place in other projects. The team working on Stadia will also be reassigned to other departments within Google.