Google shuts down its gaming service, offers refunds

Google is shuttering the doors on its gaming initiative, Google Stadia and giving users their money back for purchases made on the platform.

Google has announced it will shutter its gaming service, Google Stadia, on January 18th, 2023.

The announcement was long overdue, as Stadia had failed to reach any sort of mass adoption in the gaming community.

Google Stadia was a unique entry point into gaming, as it was a service built around streaming games through the Stadia platform without actually downloading the game in question. Users could access a library of games and play them instantly without waiting for a lengthy download. However, due to the way data streaming works, players would often find lag spikes and hiccups in their experience.

“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,” Stadia general manager and vice president Phil Harrison said.

Google addressed details of the shutdown and subsequent refunds in a Q&A, but did not detail the amount of money or numbers of users who would be refunded.

The refunds are unexpected but welcome — Stadia was a gamble for many, as game streaming technology is still in its infancy.

Google showcased its game streaming tech first in 2019, at a Game Developer’s Conference. Picture: AFP

The technology that powered Stadia isn’t being tossed away, however. “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,” Harrison says.

Stadia was first announced in 2019, and launched in November of that year. Many of the core features people expect from a gaming console, such as High Dynamic Range (HDR) were absent on the console’s launch. At first, the console was the only way to enjoy Stadia games, but after poor initial sales, Stadia was opened up to anyone with a Gmail account.

An internal Google game development studio was shutdown in 2021, leading many to believe that Stadia was well on its way out the door. Stadia shuts down permanently on January 18th, 2023, and Google expects to have full refunds for all backers and customers by mid-January as well.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.