Google Kills Stadia

takyon writes:

Google will shut down its Stadia cloud game service on January 18, 2023. All Stadia hardware and software purchases made through Google will be refunded:

Stadia's technology will live on as a Google Cloud product called "Immersive Stream for Games." Google has made some headway pitching the feature as a way to run games on underpowered devices, like Peloton fitness equipment.

Google Stadia never lived up to its initial promise. The service, which ran a game in the cloud and sent each individual frame of video down to your computer or phone, was pitched as a gaming platform that would benefit from Google's worldwide scale and streaming expertise. While it was a trailblazing service, competitors quickly popped up with better scale, better hardware, better relationships with developers, and better games. The service didn't take off immediately and reportedly undershot Google's estimates by "hundreds of thousands" of users. Google then quickly defunded the division, involving the high-profile closure of its in-house development studio before it could make a single game.

Competitors include Nvidia's GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Amazon Luna.

See also: Stadia controllers could become e-waste unless Google issues Bluetooth update
Stadia's technology will go on to do greater things, but no one really cares anymore
Stadia died because no one trusts Google

Previously: Google Announces "Stadia" Streaming Game Service
Google Details Pricing, Hardware for Stadia Streaming Game Service

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