Google to shut Stadia and refund gamers

Google has said it’s shutting down its Stadia cloud gaming service early next year.

It launched three years ago and allows players to stream games to their TV, laptop or phone without needing a console.

But Google said it had made the “difficult decision” because it hadn’t “gained the traction with users that we expected”.

The Stadia store is now closed and users who’ve bought hardware, games and add-on content will be refunded, said boss Phil Harrison in a blog post.

However, Stadia Pro subscriptions won’t be eligible for refund.

“Players will continue to have access to their games library and play through January 18, 2023 so they can complete final play sessions,” he said.

“We expect to have the majority of refunds completed by mid-January, 2023.”

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Stadia last year closed its own in-house games development unit but insisted the platform was “alive and well” with over 100 games launching – that was until this week’s announcement.

Google said it remained “deeply committed to gaming” and would “continue to invest in new tools, technologies and platforms”.

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