- The End of Google’s significant investment ‘Google Stadia’.
- Instead of releasing any original games on Stadia, Google relied on third-party games to attract users.
- It wasn’t immediately clear how many employees or even partners were aware of Stadia’s demise before it happened.
Google Stadia is being discontinued. On January 18, 2023, Google’s significant investment in cloud gaming will come to an end, just three years after its inception.
Instead of releasing any original games on Stadia, Google relied on third-party games to attract users, which was an expensive strategy that cost the company, according to Bloomberg, tens of millions of dollars per port. Google reportedly approached firms like Peloton and Bungie about white-label arrangements for their streaming technology since it had no notable releases to promote.
Since July, when the now-suspended Twitter account Killed By Google predicted Stadia would be finished by the end of the summer, there have been rumors about Google’s intention to end the service. Stadia’s official Twitter account retaliated at the time, saying, “Stadia is not shutting down.” That’s exactly what’s happening now, two months later.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many employees or even partners were aware of Stadia’s demise before it happened. A Bungie moderator posted on the Destiny Forums, “We just learnt about Stadia closing down and have began conversations regarding next measures for our players.”
A Stadia community manager was answering questions on Reddit about a new user interface that was “coming out slowly,” which confused many who were aware of the shutdown. Without going into further detail, Stadia vice president and general manager Phil Harrison stated in a blog post today that “many of the Stadia team members will be pushing this work forward in other parts of the organization.”
A residential studio where original ideas are worked on. Jade Raymond, a legend in the field, led that endeavor. Raymond, a former vice president of Google and creator of Motive Studio and Ubisoft Toronto, didn’t survive long.
According to reports, by February 2021, Google had shelved a number of initiatives, shut down two of its studios—one each in Montreal and Los Angeles—and fired about 150 workers. As part of the shift, Raymond started working in a new studio called Haven after leaving the previous one. She was followed by at least a half-dozen workers.
Stadia never bounced back. Harrison, who made the announcement of Stadia’s demise today, claimed that despite having “a robust technological base,” the service hadn’t “gained traction with users.” Google would also reimburse the price of every piece of hardware purchased through its store, in addition to the cost of games and add-ons purchased through Stadia’s store, making it a costly and embarrassing failure for the company. Harrison stated that the “bulk” of those refunds ought to be completed by mid-January.
The games themselves no longer appear to be the company’s primary focus; rather, it is the technology that underpinned Stadia. Harrison claimed that Google, including YouTube, Google Play, and augmented reality initiatives, sees “obvious opportunity to leverage this technology across other sections of Google.”
Harrison added that he still thought cloud gaming was the future and that the Stadia technology would be made available to “industry partners.” As he revealed Stadia’s collapse, Harrison stated, “We remain profoundly devoted to gaming.” It’s difficult to believe the promise. Gaming’s future was previously Stadia. It is now the past.
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