First launched in November 2019, the cloud gaming platform failed to capture enough excitement from consumers
Google has officially closed the doors on its cloud gaming platform. First launched in November 2019, the platform failed to capture enough excitement from consumers. Now, Google is focusing on how to do right by its streaming customers. The company is refunding all Stadia hardware purchased through the Google Store and isn’t asking for it to be sent back. Additionally, refunds will be given out for any games and add-on content purchased from the Stadia store.
“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,” Stadia vice president and GM Phil Harrison wrote in a blog post.
This isn’t the first piece of bad news Harrison has had to disclose about Google’s gaming gambit: In 2021, Stadia Games and Entertainment (SG&E), its internal game development service, was terminated because game development proved too hard and expensive, even for a giant like Google.
“Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially,” Harrison said at the time. “Over the coming months, most of the SG&E team will be moving on to new roles.”
While this is game over for Stadia, Harrison shared that the platform’s underlying technology has promise beyond gaming. “We see clear opportunities to apply this technology across other parts of Google like YouTube, Google Play, and our Augmented Reality (AR) efforts — as well as make it available to our industry partners, which aligns with where we see the future of gaming headed,” he said. “We remain deeply committed to gaming, and we will continue to invest in new tools, technologies and platforms that power the success of developers, industry partners, cloud customers and creators.”
