Google To Shut Down Stadia Cloud Service In January 2023
Phil Harrison, vice president and general manager of Google Stadia, announced in a blog post on the company’s website that the cloud service will cease operations on January 18, 2023.
The team that was involved in the cloud service will be transferred to other projects within Google, and the technology will be implemented in other products. The media wrote about the termination of the development of Stadia in early February 2022.
The Stadia store is now closed so you can’t make new purchases. In-game transactions are also disabled. Google says most returns will be automatic, and you won’t have to return most Stadia hardware. Meanwhile, Google will not refund Stadia Pro subscriptions. If you have an active membership to date, the company will not charge you for access to your library of games or other Pro features until Stadia is permanently closed.
The reason for the “difficult decision” is not surprising. According to Google, the service “did not get the response from users that we expected.” It’s a pity, though, as the streaming technology behind Stadia works really well and the service had its own community.
