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
Clearly these notebook manufacturers could have retargeted these devices for another sector. As for the fake screenshots, at least Acer made the effort to change these from Google Stadia to GeForce NOW.
:)
Stadia simply didn't get anywhere near enough adoption to justify the effort. I think it's sad and might in the future prove be yet another instance of something that was ahead of it's time
Headless chicken levels.
community.stadia.com/t5/Stadia-General/A-Gift-from-the-Stadia-Team-amp-Bluetooth-Controller/m-p/85936/
as well a final free worms game. Here's a take from TheVerge:
www.theverge.com/2023/1/13/23554200/google-stadia-controller-bluetooth-support-last-game
For those not familiar with the service, the Stadia controller talked directly to Stadia servers via a Wi-Fi connection rather than the local client device via Bluetooth to reduce input latency. The wireless communications chip only had the Wi-Fi support enabled; next week's software will enable Bluetooth.
The Stadia controller works fine as a wired controller with a variety of gaming devices including both Mac and Windows PCs. For those with a Stadia controller, this update makes the gamepad a more fully rounded gaming input device. Google refunded Stadia hardware purchases but let the buyers keep the physical devices (i.e., free gamepad).
Both are thoughtful parting gifts from a company more known for just letting things wither and die.
I never bothered to hunt down the specifics myself but clearly Google selected a wireless chip that had dual support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. I assumed this was commonplace for this category of device.
I was aware of the disabled Bluetooth when I bought the Stadia hardware.