Thursday, September 29th 2022
Google Calls it Quits on Game Streaming, Shutting Down Stadia
Game streaming services, such as GeForce Now, Stadia and Amazon's Luna, haven't been the roaring success the companies behind them had hoped for. One of the pitfalls, that NVIDIA quickly found out, was that the game publishers weren't overly keen on gamers being able to play games they already owned on multiple systems, even if it wasn't on more than one system at once. Multiple services have already come and gone over the years and now it's time for Google to bid farewell to its Stadia service. In its blog post, Google didn't state the exact reasoning behind shutting down the service, beyond it not gaining the kind of traction the company had hoped for.
The good news here is that Google will be refunding all of its Stadia customers, regardless if it's someone that has bought hardware through the Google Store, or bought games or even add-on content for games through the Stadia Store. Google will be refunding all of its customers by the 18th of January 2023 and those using Stadia will continue to have access to all of their content until that date. Google expects its Stadia technology to be used for other services, or potentially be made available to third parties. As to the team behind Stadia, many will apparently carry on working for other departments at Google.
Source:
Google
The good news here is that Google will be refunding all of its Stadia customers, regardless if it's someone that has bought hardware through the Google Store, or bought games or even add-on content for games through the Stadia Store. Google will be refunding all of its customers by the 18th of January 2023 and those using Stadia will continue to have access to all of their content until that date. Google expects its Stadia technology to be used for other services, or potentially be made available to third parties. As to the team behind Stadia, many will apparently carry on working for other departments at Google.
179 Comments on Google Calls it Quits on Game Streaming, Shutting Down Stadia
Second reaction: Holy crap, has it really been three years? How'd it last that long?
Once the pandemic hit and video gaming exploded, they probably hoped that Stadia would see big gains in adoption. It didn't and now it's time to say goodbye. They had their best chance and consumers didn't take to the service.
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Called it, I knew that this would join the Google Graveyard.
That means I scored a free gamepad and Chromecast (3rd gen?). The Stadia controller works fine as a generic wired Xinput gamepad (not sure about wireless connectivity though).
To their credit, Google is refunding content purchases (including add-on content) as well as hardware purchased through the Stadia and Google Stores. So yes, one would have to repurchase the game but they wouldn't be out any extra cash in the end.
I still believe that cloud game streaming has a niche; some company will eventually figure out the right combination of content, hardware, software and pricing to make this happen. My guess is that it will happen on mobile (handhelds like smartphones or notebook PCs) before it ends up on desktop PCs.
If all companies operated like that I really would not worry about it, sadly they don't.
EA acquired the cloud streaming technology of GameFly in 2018.
Some company is going to figure this out and the chances are it'll be one of the big video game companies perhaps using technology acquired from a startup.
Signing up for a cloud streaming GaaS from a small startup is highly risky for Joe Consumer.
www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/rumors-raise-the-doubt-that-google-stadia-service-will-last-much-longer.297288/post-4803700
You have to admit that the PC grew because of the pandemic and will decline now, somewhat, it wont crash at least.
Most gaming revenue is coming from mobile these days.
People playing games on their smartphones really don't want 50 GB downloads and see their batteries drain in an hour. Even Minecraft on iOS is nearly a 1 GB download.
PUBG Mobile is 2.2 GB. CoD Mobile is 2.5 GB. Apex Legends Mobile is 3.5 GB. Those are big downloads and that doesn't address the battery demands of 3D graphics on these devices.
Let's face it, most of the world isn't running the latest iPhone 14 Max or whatever Samsung's just released flagship handset.All platform segments of gaming are growing but mobile has grown faster than the others which is why it is #1 today. As a percentage of the total gaming revenue, mobile will outpace PC and console gaming in growth.