Google Stadia will be closed in 2023, and all purchases will be refunded

cloud gaming service google stadia will It closed on January 18, the search giant said in a blog post on Thursday. Google will return all Stadia devices purchased through its Google Store, as well as all games and additional content purchased from the Stadia Store.

The tech giant aims to complete all refunds by mid-January.

People who use Stadia will still have access to their game libraries, including Pro games if you have an active Pro subscription starting Thursday. In an email sent to gamers, Google warned that publisher support for games may vary, and it’s possible that your gaming experience will be affected during the lockdown (indicating that some games may disappear or lose features early on).

It seems Google didn’t tell many developers about the shutdown before the public blog was published. The makers of Destiny 2 Bungie Thursday tweets about Coming up with a business plan Following the advertisement. Doctrine killer Developer Ubisoft intends to allow players who have purchased its games on Stadia To bring them to your computer Through its digital distribution service Ubisoft Connect, it said Friday.

Google has spoken to at least one studio (the developer of Luxor Evolved old school) about compensation for lost income as a result of the sudden change, I mentioned Axios Friday.

Stadia Vice President and General Manager Phil Harrison explained the move, noting Google’s investments in games through Google Play’s digital distribution service, cloud technology and YouTube streaming.

“A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia,” he said in the blog post. “And while Stadia’s approach to consumer game streaming was built on a strong technology foundation, it didn’t gain as much traction with users as we had expected, so we made the difficult decision to start ending Stadia’s streaming service.”

The blog post indicated that several employees on the Stadia team will be reassigned to other roles within Google.

The cloud gaming service launched in November 2019 and has received a mixed reception.

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“Stadia isn’t delivering new games [at the moment]It’s just trying to offer a new way to play through streaming. One you can actually get from other providers,” CNET’s Scott Stein wrote at that time. “Until Google finds a way to iterate on YouTube and develop unique competitive games at scale, Stadia isn’t worth your time yet.”

Although there are some Solid games in her libraryStadia failed to evolve. The Google closed its in-house development studio In 2021, hinting that her gaming ambitions were shifting away from Stadia.

Stadia also had a lot of files Cloud gaming competitionwith X-BoxAnd the Play StationAnd the nvidia And the Amazon All the alternatives it offers.

It wasn’t a complete bankruptcy for the company, as Harrison said the technology could be applied to YouTube, Google Play and augmented reality projects.

This technology will also be made available to Google’s industry partners. Sony gave its own streaming service back in 2015 before Buy Patents OnLive – a Game early broadcast service Shortly before the promising startup closed.