Google announced Thursday, Sep. 29, its plan to close down its Stadia video game streaming service. Users can access their game library and continue to play only until January 18, 2023.
"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," said Stadia Vice President and General Manager Phil Harrison in a recent blog post.
Google expressed its appreciation to users and players of the said cloud gaming website, promising them to refund all hardware purchases made through its online store. Most of the items will not need to be returned. All the game and add-on contents that were purchased from the website will be reimbursed, too.
The company will post more details regarding the refund process in the coming weeks.
The majority of refunds are expected to be fulfilled in mid-January of 2023.
On the other hand, direct employees under Stadia will be distributed to other parts of Google company.
Is This an Effort to Make Google More Efficient?
Earlier this month, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai expressed how he hopes to make the company 20% more efficient. He gave hints about cutting down a team and integrating two products into one. Therefore, ceasing the operations of Stadia is one move to achieve the CEO's goal.
The Google Stadia Since its Launch
Stadia is one of Google's latest products, launched in November 2019. It is a platform where players can stream a wide range of video games, including the top-ranking ones such as Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Cyberpunk 2077, and PUBG: Battlegrounds.
The utilization is directly through the Google cloud service. This means that users can enjoy the Stadia gaming and streaming services as long as they have access to Google Chrome. Yet, dedicated players had options to buy controllers from the company.
Related Article : Google Launches Google Stadia with 22 Games to Play
Stadia as a White-Label Product
In October 2021, Google started introducing Stadia as a white-label technology product. This effectively allows other companies to use the platform without becoming a part of the Stadia ecosystem. One of the first companies that made use of the Stadia architecture is AT&T.
The telecommunications group gave free access to its customers to play and stream Batman: Arkham Knight. It confirmed that the Stadia technology made it possible.
According to the report by IGN, a spokesperson of the telecommunications company explained that "for this demo, AT&T created a front-end experience to enable gamers to play Batman: Arkham Knight directly from their own website."
Other Streaming Site Options
Although Stadia is a loss for some video game addicts, there are still other websites that offer cloud streaming services.
Xbox is offering the Game Pass Ultimate, while Nvidia has GeForce Now.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Trisha Kae Andrada
