Google has just announced the closure of its Google Stadia video game service, which was launched in March 2019. As confirmed by the company in a post published on its official blog, “the service has failed to engage users in the way they intended, and that despite having been developed with the latest technology.”
Users will be able to play Stadia’s games until January 18, 2023
That’s why Google has set a definite date for the closure of the service. The company assures that it will refund all hardware purchases for Stadia that have been made through the Google Store, as well as all games and additional content that would have been made through the Stadia store.
Players will continue to have access to its library of games and will be able to use them until next January 18, 2023. The company leaves these months to expressly “allow users to finish their games”.
According to Google, they expect to have completed all returns by mid-January 2023 and assures that it will provide users with all the details and make available its User Support Center. It also takes the opportunity to thank all those users who were offering their support to the service from the beginning.
At the same time, Google assures that the technology developed to create Stadia will not fall into disuse, and that it will serve to improve some other Google services such as YouTube, Google Play or its Augmented Reality applications, which could receive new features. Many of the employees in the Stadia team will join other departments of the company.
Google also points out that it will not stop investing in the gaming field, with new tools, technologies and platforms to support both developers, industry partners and gamers.
