Google Confirms It's Shutting Down Stadia

Google is shutting down its Stadia cloud gaming service. The tech giant has confirmed that the service will remain live for players until 18 January, 2023.

In a blog post (via The Verge), Google promised that it would refund all stadia hardware purchased via the Google Store, as well as any games and add-on content purchased through Stadia. The company believes these refunds will be processed and completed by mid January.

“A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia,” Stadia vice president and GM Phil Harrison wrote in a blog post published today. “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.”

Employees who worked on Stadia will be moved to other projects across Google, with Harrison stressing that the technology the team has built can be applied to the likes of YouTube, Google Play, and more.

"For the Stadia team, building and supporting Stadia from the ground up has been fuelled by the same passion for games that our players have. Many of the Stadia team members will be carrying this work forward in other parts of the company," Harrison added.

"We’re so grateful for the groundbreaking work of the team and we look forward to continuing to have an impact across gaming and other industries using the foundational Stadia streaming technology."