The hard economic times are hitting even the most resilient and well-moneyed enterprises. Facebook, Amazon and Google have all announced unprecedented cost-cutting measures that include downsizing their workforce.
As part of the ongoing measures, Google has announced that it will be shutting down Stadia, the cloud-based game streaming service it launched in 2019.
Google VP Phil Harrison, announced via a blog post on Thursday that the company has made the difficult decision to begin winding down the Stadia streaming service,” because it “hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected.”
Stadia was Google’s attempt at the rapidly growing gaming scene, but the hopes have been dimmed as the company plans to turn off the gaming servers on January 18, 2023.
The fall of Stadia has been forthcoming since last year’s announcement of that the company was disbanding the Stadia Games and Entertainment team, the core creators of its original games.
Google has announced refunds to all customers who purchased hardware, apps and add-on content at the Stadia store. Refunds should be complete by mid-January, the company said.
The tech giant said it will use the experience with Stadia to improve gaming experiences on its other platforms.
“We see clear opportunities to apply this technology across other parts of Google like YouTube, Google Play, and our Augmented Reality (AR) efforts — as well as make it available to our industry partners, which aligns with where we see the future of gaming headed,” Harrison wrote.
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