Google is pulling out the plug on its cloud-based gaming service. Stadia will be discontinued early next year and the company will offer full refunds to all its users. Many of the team members that were working on the gaming platform are being shifted to other parts of the company.
Stadia Getting Discontinued – What That Means For The Users?
Although Google is shutting down Stadia, they want to make sure that users don’t lose much. The company will issue full refunds for almost everything they’ve sold to users till now. This includes all Stadia hardware purchases like the Stadia Controller, Stadia Founder’s Edition, Stadia Premiere Edition, or Play and Watch with Google TV Package, made in the Google Store and all purchases of games and all in-game transactions made in the Stadia Store.
In the meanwhile, users will still have access to existing games and in-game content until January 18, 2023, but all digital purchases in Stadia have been disabled. Stadia Pro subscription charges won’t be refunded, but active subscribers will have access to their library without charge until the platform shuts down. The company is expecting to clear most of the refunds by mid-January.
What Went Wrong With Stadia?
When Google first announced Stadia, I had high hopes for the platform. But, soon with streaming issues and a lackluster gaming library, it fell down on its face. Competing against something like NVIDIA Geforce Now, Google’s cloud gaming solution never even stood a chance in its current state and it seems like the company didn’t want to invest in this project anymore.
Google’s been canceling a lot of projects recently as a cost-cutting measure inside the company. They even canceled the next Pixelbook a few days back, so I’m not surprised that Stadia, which wasn’t making much money anyway, was canceled as well.
If you bought any Stadia hardware or its digital products, keep an eye on the Stadia Help support page for details on your refunds. Those who managed to get their Stadia hardware outside the Google Store through third parties are sadly not eligible for refunds from Google.
Source: Google Blog | Stadia Community
