Google Stadia Closing In 2023

Google has announced they are winding up their Cloud Streaming service, Stadia. The company announced that all services will be terminated in 2023.

In a blog post, the vice president and general manager of Stadia, Phil Harrison made the announcement that the service will be terminated on 18th January 2023. As of today, the Stadia store is closed for new purchases, although players can still get their games.

With the exception of Stadia Pro subscriptions, those who spent money on the service will see a refund by the middle of January and won’t be expected to return any equipment.

In a lengthy post, Harrison thanked players for supporting the project:

A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia. 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.

Phil Harrison – Google Blog

Despite the failure of the service, cited the technology behind it being applied in other areas of the business. It’s currently unknown what will happen to the staff at the company.

When Stadia released in 2019, it was touted as the future of gaming as the purpose was to play high quality video games across any platform that could access Google Chrome.

On paper, a streaming service is a valid progression of tech, it’s been happening with music and TV for years, but gamers felt reluctant to take the plunge for a myriad of reasons. The worry of having a consistent and high speed internet connection, as well as the worries of games disappearing when licences expire, put players off.

Stadia closing its doors may be sad to those who embraced the service, but Google has done the right thing by offering refunds of game purchases. I just hope players make the most of their time between now and 18th January.