Google officially shut down its Stadia cloud gaming service on Jan. 19. The service, which launched in November 2019, was designed to support cloud-based games on a variety of devices, including PCs, Chromebooks, Macs, iPhones and iPads.
Google said at the time that part of the project’s cloud infrastructure would remain available on Google Cloud and would be made available to third-party companies interested in the technology.
However, according to Axios reporter Stephen Totilo, the last of Stadia’s services will also be shut down. Since the cloud streaming technology was repositioned, the technology has been available in more limited ways, such as AT&T customers getting a streaming version of Batman: Arkham Knight.
Non-gaming companies such as fitness giant Peloton also used the technology to offer gamified versions of their workouts via the cloud, but that too has now been shut down, and Peloton general manager Phil Harrison admitted in September 2022 when he announced plans for the Stadia shutdown that the service wasn’t attracting users as much as Google expected after it launched in November 2019.
In announcing the closure, Google also confirmed its intention to refund all Stadia hardware purchased through the Google Store, as well as games and add-on content purchased through the Stadia Store.
