Google’s Stadia has been struggling to win the hearts of gamers since it launched back in 2019. Today Google has put the final nail in its coffin and announced the closure of its Stadia cloud gaming service and will be issuing refunds to those gamers who have purchased hardware and games on the service.
Google will officially close Stadia early next year on January 18th, 2023, and has pledged refunds to players who purchased controllers and games as well as expansions, DLC, and add-on content. So if you have purchased anything to do with Stadia it is definitely worth reaching out to Google to grab your refunds which should be completed by mid-January says the press release. For more information on how to request a refund jump over to the official Help Centre.
Google Stadia closes
“A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia. 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.”
“We’re grateful to the dedicated Stadia players that have been with us from the start. We will be refunding 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 games library and play through January 18, 2023, so they can complete the final play sessions. We expect to have the majority of refunds completed by mid-January, 2023.”
“The underlying technology platform that powers Stadia has been proven at scale and transcends 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. 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.”
Source: Google
