Google Stadia definitively closes its doors

Google announced the closure of his ambitious game streaming project, Stadia. The news comes directly from Phil Harrison, Vice President and CEO of Stadia, in a blog post published last night. Let’s find out all the details together.

Google announces the closure of Stadia

Harrison stated that the players they bought hardware e games Stadia will receive a refund for their purchases.

“We are grateful to the Stadia players who have followed us from the start,” said Harrison. “We will refund all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia Store. Players will continue to have access to their game library and play until January 18, 2023, so that they can complete their latest game sessions. We expect to complete most refunds by mid-January 2023.“

Harrison added that the cloud-streaming technology that powered Stadia could power other products of Google and that the company will remain “deeply committed to the game.” Harrison then stated:

“We see clear opportunities to apply this technology in other parts of Google, such as YouTube, Google Play and our Augmented Reality (AR) businesses, as well as make it available to our industrial partners, which is in line with the future of gaming. We remain deeply committed to the game and will continue to invest in new tools, technologies and platforms that drive the success of developers, industrial partners, cloud customers and creators. ”

The short history of Stadia

Google Stadia was officially revealed in march 2019, on the occasion of the Game Developers Conference. The cloud-gaming platform has been launched in November of the same yearbut without some of the ambitious features promises that initially made Stadia interesting.

At launch, Stadia required players purchasing a Founders Packwhich included a Chromecast Ultraand controller Stadia it’s a three-month subscription to Stadia Pro. They were available on launch day twelve games e the service was available in 14 countries.

In April 2020, Google made it less stringent the requirements to play Stadiaopening the service to anyone with a Gmail address. Users had to purchase games from the Stadia store or subscribe to Stadia Pro for $ 9.99 per month to access the game list.

In 2021, Google confirmed the closure of the internal gaming studios dedicated to the development of Stadia. It also made public the decision of Jade Raymondvice president of Stadia Games and Entertainment, di leave the company.

For more details on the closure of Stadia, Google published an extensive FAQ.