It has been one of the most interesting bets in recent years, especially for the support of a company of the caliber of Google. Stadia It was erected as a platform on which to play a multitude of games via streaming, a full-fledged bet with the company that wanted to become an industry leader.
The dream is over. Google has just announced that Stadia will say goodbye on January 18, 2023, at which point the servers will be closed forever. From the company they recognize that the service “has not gained the users that we expected.”
All in all, a great one arises. And it is that before the question of what will happen with all the purchases made in Stadia, Google answers: “we will refund all purchases hardware (…) as well as all additional game and content purchases.” We will continue to have access to our game library and be able to continue playing through the aforementioned date. Most refunds are expected to be made by mid-January 2023.
All the technology applied in the creation of Stadia will not be lost and will be redirected by Google to other fields such as YouTube, Google Play or augmented reality. In addition, it will make it “available to our industry partners”, while employees will be located in other parts of the company.
A failure on the horizon
When January 18, 2023 arrives, it will have been just over three years of Stadia’s adventure in the industry. Throughout this time, they have always played with the possibility that Google closed the platformwhich was full of doubts.
Exclusive video games like GYLT became an asset to be reckoned with, but that policy was diluted over time. All in all, the first party studios were the target on the horizon, even with a flashy signing like Jade Raymond to lead the project. Despite this, many functions were still not available.
The complaints about lack of content They began to be evident and Stadia promised the landing of 120 titles by 2020. Just over two years after the launch of the subscription, Google changed course to bet on a sustainable business, closing internal studies.
What is more than clear is that the abandonment of John Justice and Jade Raymond herself was a deadly blow. Also, it was a clear message to the outside world that there were cracks in the ship. Even with this scenario, Google did not give up, offering developers an 85% profit model for them.
in the middle of this year the signs of weakness they were very obvious with the company offering its tools to third parties. And Google has resisted until the end, which a couple of months ago denied that Stadia was going to say goodbye. Today all suspicions have been confirmed.