Google has announced plans to shut down its Stadia cloud gaming service and refund players. Stadia was touted as a “Netflix for games” when it launched in November 2019, allowing players to stream games online without owning a console.
But the service will now come to an end on 18 January 2023 because of a lack of “traction” with gamers. Google has promised refunds to players who purchased its Stadia controller, as well as any games or add-on content, reports BBC.
It said it estimates those refunds will be completed by mid-January.
Stadia games run on servers at Google data centres around the world, with the video footage streamed to a TV or mobile device.
Phil Harrison, vice-president and general manager of Stadia, said in a blog post: “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.”
