Google’s Stadia game streaming service is shutting down

Most gaming fans will already have guessed that Google’s game streaming service won’t be the most successful project under the Alphabet umbrella. And that’s now confirmed, because on September 29, 2022, Phil Harrison, Stadia’s Vice President and General Manager, published the news that the service would be closed by January 2023. The reason: Stadia never really got a foothold in the gaming community; many players prefer to have their own hardware at home instead of renting access to virtual PCs. “[Stadia] did not find the acceptance we had expected from users. That’s why we made the difficult decision to close our Stadia streaming service,” Harrison said.

Hardware and Software Refunds

But Stadia isn’t just being discontinued. Google’s operators are so accommodating that they want to refund “all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia Store”. You will have access to your game library until January 18, 2023 so you can still complete games. By mid-January 2023, most of the reimbursements should have been completed. You can find out more information about this process in the Google Help Center.