Cloud gaming service Google Stadia will shut down on Jan. 18, 2023, the search giant said Thursday. It will refund all Stadia hardware purchased through the Google Store, along with all the games and add-on content purchased from the Stadia store.
It’s aiming to have all the refunds completed by mid-January.
Explaining the move in a blog post, Stadia vice president and general manager Phil Harrison highlighted Google’s investments in gaming through its Google Play digital distribution service, streaming on YouTube and its cloud tech.
“A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia,” he wrote. “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.”
Many employees on the Stadia team will be reassigned to other roles within Google, Harrison noted.
Watch this:
Playing Google Stadia for the first time
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