If you’re among the small but stalwart group of gamers still playing on Stadia, you’ll be disappointed to know that it’s about to be the latest canceled project in Google’s toolbox.
“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 wrote in a blog post today. “We will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store. Players will continue to have access to their games library and play through January 18, 2023 so they can complete final play sessions. We expect to have the majority of refunds completed by mid-January, 2023. We have more details for players on this process on our Help Center.” Google does say that it’ll find ways to apply Stadia-related tech to other platforms under its umbrella.
The news won’t come as a huge shock as the company had already “deprioritized” Stadia development earlier in 2022 following a 2021 exodus of execs, closure of internal studios, and negative commentary from developers and insiders.
Multiple MMORPGs ran on the platform in addition to PC and console, the most notable of which was Elder Scrolls Online.
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