Stadia

2022 - 9 - 30

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Image courtesy of "Forbes"

Google Is Killing Stadia, And Refunding Every Purchase Ever Made (Forbes)

Google Stadia, Google's long-suffering attempt at a cloud gaming streaming service, is finally dead.

But an era all the same. The end of Stadia is the end of an era. Stadia also suffered because Google’s first party game ambitions did not play out, with the tech giant killing those projects and as such, they had close to nothing to offer that Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo or PC didn’t already have. When Stadia does not exist anymore, neither do the game libraries of its players who purchased hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of titles for use on the service. Rivals like Xbox Game Pass or PS Plus may have a cloud element, but they are still fundamentally somewhere you can download and play games onto actual hardware for a more stable experience. After lots of initial hype, a bunch of scaling back, and promises things would get better, Stadia finally comes to rest in the Google graveyard of killed-off products and services, the way many predicted it eventually would.

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Image courtesy of "CNBC"

Google to shut down gaming service Stadia as CEO Pichai ... (CNBC)

The company said Stadia servers will be turned off Jan. 18, and most refunds should be completed by then. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said recently he wants to ...

Google said it will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store and all game and add-on content purchases at the Stadia store. [saying](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/07/google-ceo-says-he-hopes-to-make-company-20percent-more-efficient-hints-at-potential-cuts.html) he wants to make the company 20% more efficient. Alphabet's stock price is down 34% this year and in July the company [reported](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/26/alphabet-is-set-to-report-q2-earnings-after-the-bell-.html) disappointing revenue and profit numbers. [FAQ page](https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/12790109) says. Speculation swirled about the potential for a broader cut to the service. "We’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service,” he wrote.

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Image courtesy of "The New York Times"

Google to Shut Down Stadia Video Game Streaming Service (The New York Times)

After nearly three years, Google has decided to winnow its video game ambitions because Stadia was less popular than it had anticipated.

Google will refund all game hardware purchases made through the Google Store, as well as game purchases made in the Stadia Store, Mr. The company is set to shutter Hangouts, its messaging app, in November. And YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, announced in January that it would stop making original content. He said the company expected to complete most refunds by the middle of January. The product debuted almost three years ago, promising to revolutionize how people play video games. But it failed to catch on with enough gamers.

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Image courtesy of "Reuters"

Google to wind down Stadia streaming service three years after launch (Reuters)

Alphabet Inc's Google said on Thursday it would wind down its consumer gaming service, Stadia, as it failed to attract enough interest from gamers after ...

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Image courtesy of "Financial Times"

Google to shut Stadia cloud games streaming service (Financial Times)

Retreat part of a company-wide effort by tech giant to save money and narrow focus.

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Image courtesy of "Bloomberg"

Google Winds Down Stadia Game-Streaming Service Three Years ... (Bloomberg)

Unlike traditional consoles, Stadia allowed users to play games on devices such as Android phones and Chromecast apps for TV, by funneling data directly from ...

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Image courtesy of "South China Morning Post"

Google's Stadia winds down after failing to get gamers on board with ... (South China Morning Post)

Stadia 'hasn't gained the traction with users' that Google expected and service will end on January 18, the company announced.

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Image courtesy of "Protocol"

So long, Stadia, we hardly knew ye (Protocol)

While other cloud gaming platforms used a variety of business models that allowed consumers to either play games they already owned or those made available via ...

[mandate](https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/29/new-york-follows-california-mandating-zero-emissions-vehicles-by-2035/) requiring all new cars sold in the state to be EVs by 2035. [OpenAI’s DALL-E](https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/sourcecode/dall-e-future-ai-art), the slew of AI-generated image tools that followed, and what the future looks like for images based on text input. This followed a [damning Business Insider report](https://www.businessinsider.com/google-stadia-stream-plan-partnerships-peloton-bungie-gaming-service-2022-2) in February 2022 that said Google had “deprioritized” the consumer side of the business in favor of trying to salvage its streaming tech as an enterprise business. [wrote](https://twitter.com/GoogleStadia/status/1552989433590214656) on July 29, “Stadia is not shutting down. Each has a dreamlike quality that makes you feel like you’re looking at something incredible while also being under the influence of drugs (not that I would know). Silicon Valley is no longer the sole hub where tech lives and thrives, with tech scenes flourishing in cities like New York and Los Angeles. Rest assured we're always working on bringing more great games to the platform and Stadia Pro.” Now, two months later, the inevitable has in fact happened. Google had a rough 2020 as it tried to attract new users to Stadia on the promise of exclusive games, big first-party releases like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, and an expanding feature set that would fulfill those lofty promises made a year prior. Although companies have been trying to crack game streaming for years, no company arrived on the scene with as much ambition as Google back in 2019. For many industry watchers, it was the inevitable and unfortunate conclusion to arguably Google’s riskiest gaming gamble. And that shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. Stadia, Google’s foray into cloud gaming, will shut down in January, marking the end of a pretty brutal three years.

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Image courtesy of "Capacity Media"

Gaming still a 'huge opportunity' for Google despite Stadia shutdown (Capacity Media)

Google announced it would close its Stadia cloud gaming service and has announced it will refund gamers who bought its Stadia controller and other add-on ...

After its announcement in 2019, Google planned a “cloud gaming” revolution similar to Netflix’s approach to movies. “Stadia is arguably ahead of its time and clearly shows that a lot of work is still needed for true cloud gaming services to fly,” he says. Gaming still a ‘huge opportunity’ for Google despite Stadia shutdown

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Image courtesy of "Polygon"

Google Stadia shuts down after three years: How it all went wrong (Polygon)

Closeup of two hands holding a purple Google Stadia gamepad, with a blurred monitor in Photo by Olly Curtis/Future Publishing via Getty Images. Has anything in ...

[announced The Finals](https://www.polygon.com/23373768/embark-studios-new-game-the-finals-preview-free-to-play-shooter-alpha), a multiplayer shooter whose complicated, destruction-based physics engine is handled on the server side. When Ouya’s vision of bringing Android mobile games to home theater setups imploded in the same year, none that crowdfunded console’s backers got anything back. [paid eight figures](https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1365381358416232454), according [to some reports](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-26/google-video-game-unit-stadia-struggled-to-be-googley-enough), to bring established console and PC titles, like Red Dead Redemption 2, The Division, or the latest NBA 2K, to their platform — at full price. “Battle royale games can go from hundreds of players today to thousands of players tomorrow.” From the GDC 2019 announcement, Stadia was marketed like a finished product. Has anything in video gaming launched hotter, and returned to Earth harder, than Google Stadia?

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Image courtesy of "Forbes"

Google's Stadia Shutdown Has Caught Stadia Developers Totally ... (Forbes)

While it's a great (and necessary) move that Google has chosen to refund all players hardware and software purchases through Google Stadia ahead of the ...

Google Stadia Social Media Manager may not have been privy to this information at the time, but it reflects a larger pattern of Google maintaining they had the utmost faith in Google Stadia and despite scaling it back and shuttering first party developments, always maintained it would soldier on. Google has said it wants to keep utilizing Stadia streaming tech in other ways, but for now, it feels a bit chaotic. Even they don’t seem to have been given a heads up about this, with only this to tell Axios about their Stadia games, "We'll have more specifics to share about our games on Stadia at a later date." Bungie, maker of Destiny, recently bought by Sony, has been using Stadia to help with its widespread work-from-home development on the game, and while the Stadia shutdown announcement seems to indicate they may still work with partners on uses of the tech, it’s unclear when that may take shape, and what immediate plans may have to shift because of the pending shutdown. That’s a lot of time and effort and money that could have been saved had they known this was coming. And there’s the playerbase itself, where 5,000 Destiny players play the game on Stadia daily, which was once a flagship featured game for the service.

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Image courtesy of "IGN Southeast Asia"

Google Reportedly Passed on a Stadia-Exclusive Follow-Up to ... (IGN Southeast Asia)

Posted Sept. 30, 2022, 10:56 p.m.. Hideo Kojima was reportedly working on a follow-up to Death Stranding that was meant to be an exclusive title for ...

[game with Microsoft](/news/186524/hideo-kojima-announces-xbox-partnership-to-create-a-game-i-have-always-wanted-to-make) that will utilize the company’s “cutting edge technology,” particularly its cloud services. [announced yesterday](/google-stadia/190860/news/google-is-shutting-down-stadia-its-cloud-gaming-service) that it would be shutting down Stadia on January 18, 2023. However, it was apparently canceled due to its single-player nature.

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Image courtesy of "Kotaku"

Google Kills Stadia, Its Cloud Gaming Service, Refunding Everyone (Kotaku)

Google is shutting down its cloud gaming storefront just a few years after it launched.

[while Stadia is dying](https://kotaku.com/google-says-everything-at-stadia-is-fine-as-the-water-1846896205), the tech behind it will still be available to “industry partners” for other joint-ventures, like AT&T’s recent attempt to bring Batman: Arkham Knight to smartphones via streaming. Google’s track record, and Stadia’s own past, call into question whether it was ever properly committed to the ambitious endeavor. [it wasn’t ready for primetime](https://kotaku.com/google-s-stadia-just-ain-t-it-1839930224). [30% off30% Off Indacloud's Seriously Fun Cannabis Products](https://indacloud.co/delta-8-gummies/) [video game streaming service, Stadia](https://kotaku.com/google-stadia-game-streaming-cloud-cyberpunk-witcher-1849418882), on January 18th, 2023, the company announced today. Stadia, meanwhile, reportedly struggled to get big games on its platform, [spending tens of millions](https://kotaku.com/report-stadia-blew-millions-on-red-dead-redemption-2-a-1846367180) to attract titles like Red Dead Redemption 2.

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Image courtesy of "XDA Developers"

Ubisoft announces game purchase transfers from Google Stadia to PC (XDA Developers)

Ubisoft games that were purchased on Google Stadia will be eligible for transfer so that they can be played on a PC.

Lastly, members of the Stadia team will be placed in new roles in other parts of the company. Furthermore, it will be refunding all game purchases and pre-orders, including add-on content purchased through the Stadia Store. Despite the shutdown, Google will be offering full refunds on all Stadia hardware purchased through the Google Store.

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Image courtesy of "IGN"

Ubisoft, Bungie, and Others Working on Stadia Game Save ... (IGN)

Several games companies including Ubisoft, Bungie, and others, are working on allowing players to transfer their Google Stadia game saves.

“To all our HITMAN fans on Google Stadia,” they said. The quick response of developers to this unexpected issue sure is commendable, but will likely mean additional development time to implement a solution. “We're grateful to the dedicated Stadia players that have been with us from the start,” said Google. “We just learned about Stadia shutting down and have begun conversations about next steps for our players,” said Destiny 2 developers, Bungie. We'll have more to share regarding specific details as well as the impact for Ubisoft+ subscribers at a later date.— Ubisoft Support (@UbisoftSupport) “We'll have more to share regarding specific details as well as the impact for Ubisoft+ subscribers at a later date.”

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Image courtesy of "Polygon"

Google Stadia's shutdown isn't the end of cloud gaming (Polygon)

Google's timing and strategy were wrong, but the tech is here to stay. Rivals like PlayStation Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming show that streaming can complement ...

It’s a perfect match; it is surely a no-brainer that cloud gaming should be sold as a subscription service, and conveniently, Microsoft already had one, and a library of games to match. (For Sony, PlayStation Now is now positioned similarly as part of a PlayStation Plus subscription, and represents a vital gateway to a whole generation of hard-to-emulate PS3 games.) It is not a paradigm shift, it’s just an added boon — but it worms its way into our lives. Consumers, unprepared for the very concept of cloud gaming and unclear on how it complemented the gaming hardware they already owned, simply shrugged and looked the other way. In this context, cloud gaming is presented as a useful, alternative way to enjoy your games, whether it’s playing a perennial favorite like Forza Horizon on an iPad while the TV is in use or using it to immediately sample a new release before committing to a download. This has been the ace in the hole of Stadia’s closest (though by no means only) competitor, Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming. It might also have allowed it to correct another massive oversight, which was the way it put the platform before the software. In fact, it had only just begun the task of assembling studios to build exclusive games, which would obviously be years away. So, Google tried to catch the cloud gaming wave while it was still early. Nothing, as it turned out; Google has at least had the good grace Secondly, cloud gaming requires a bigger leap of faith from the gaming audience than many marketers seem to realize. Cloud gaming still has many hurdles to overcome: technical, logistical, in terms of marketing and public perception. [Google shuttering its Stadia game-streaming service](https://www.polygon.com/23378721/google-stadia-shutting-down) is: That must be it for cloud gaming, right?

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