Google is shutting down its cloud gaming service Stadia. After announcing the news in September last year, the company will now finally end the service from January 18. Stadia failed to gain the expected traction with users which is why the company has decided to end it.
Stadia gaming service was launched in October 2018 through a closed beta group and was available for all in November 2019. Google informs that players will continue to have access to their games library and play through January 18 so that they can finish their final play sessions. The company aims to complete major rounds of refunds by mid-January. According to The Verge, Google is also refunding all Stadia software purchases from the Stadia Store and hardware purchases from the Google Store.
Informing about the future of those who’ve been working on Stadia, the company says that many of the Stadia team members will continuing with other parts of the company.
“For the Stadia team, building and supporting Stadia from the ground up has been fueled 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. 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,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Stadia is Google’s cloud-based gaming platform that lets user play video games across varied compatible devices like TVs, computers, and mobile devices, with no waiting to download games, patches, or platform updates. It supports games up to 4K HDR and 60 FPS quality for Stadia Pro subscribers whereas for the non-subscribers it is up to 1080p and 60 FPS.
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