With Stadia, Google had big ambitionsnamely offering games AAA in cloud gaming, available on many devices. But between the subscription formulas, the games sold at a high price and the absence of certain third-party publishers, the platform had a hard time seducing.
In February 2021, Google closed its internal development studios in Montreal and Los Angeles. Despite this, the firm tried to keep its head above water, but today is well and truly over. Phil Harrison, vice-president and general manager of the firm, has just published a press release in which he announces the end of Google Stadia. Servers will be shut down on January 18, 2023 and all games purchased from the Stadia store will be refundedas well as the accessories bought on the store of Googlelike the wireless controller.
For many years, Google has invested in multiple aspects of the gaming industry. We help developers create and distribute game apps on Google Play and Google Play Games. Video game creators reach audiences around the world on YouTube through videos, live streams and short films. And our cloud streaming technology delivers immersive gameplay at scale.
A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia. And while Stadia’s approach to consumer game streaming was built on a solid technology foundation, it didn’t gain the user buy-in we expected. so we made the difficult decision to start terminating our Stadia streaming service.
We are grateful to the dedicated Stadia players who have been with us since the beginning. We will refund all purchases of Stadia hardware made through the Google Store, as well as all purchases of games and additional content made through the Stadia store. Players will continue to have access to their game library and will be able to play until January 18, 2023 so that they can complete the last game sessions. We expect the majority of refunds to be issued by mid-January 2023. We have more details for players on this process in our help center.
The underlying technology platform that powers Stadia is proven at scale and transcends gaming. We see clear opportunities to apply this technology to other parts of Google like YouTube, Google Play and our augmented reality (AR) efforts – as well as making it available to our industry partners, which corresponds to the future of the game that we make ourselves. We remain deeply committed to gaming and will continue to invest in new tools, technologies and platforms that fuel the success of developers, industry partners, cloud customers and creators.
For the Stadia team, building and supporting Stadia from the ground up was fueled by the same passion for games that our players have. Many members of the Stadia team will continue this work in other parts of the company. We are so grateful for the team’s groundbreaking work and look forward to continuing to impact gaming and other industries using core Stadia streaming technology.
It is therefore a major player in the world of streaming video games that is leaving, but we must admit that the competition is already tough. The players will not be harmed thanks to the refunds, but several members of the firm risk losing their jobs following this internal restructuring. Whatever, it’s time to say goodbye to Stadia, even if its technologies will be found in the other services of Google. You can find a Chromecast at €39.99 per Fnac.
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| Clint008 Writer – Tester |
