Several neitizens saw this coming following the wind up of Stadia Games and Entertainment in February.
Google has announced to shut down Stadia, its cloud gaming service, in January on account of less-than-expected traction.
Launched in 2019, Google hoped its gaming platform would compete with other well-established services like Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox as well as Amazon’s Luna.
“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,” Google’s Vice President and General Manager of Stadia, Phil Harrison said in a blog.
The company will be refunding all its “hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store.”
The American multinational tech giant further noted that till January 18 players will continue to have access to their games’ library, and majority of refunds are likely to be completed around that time. Google will continue to use the platform’s technology across other verticals such as YouTube, Google Play, and Augmented Reality and will make the technology available to its industry partners.
Several neitizens saw this coming following the wind up of Stadia Games and Entertainment, Google’s own internal development studio, in late February this year and amid its ongoing cost-cutting efforts.
Last month, the company dropped its next Pixelbook laptop and moved the team responsible for building it to other verticals. In July, Google’s Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said in an email to employees that the company will slow the pace of hiring through 2023 amid the mounting global economic headwinds. The statement came after the company reported a slower pace of year-on-year growth in the first quarter.
