Look surprised: Google is closing its gaming service

The ambitious project to create a streaming platform that offers a wide library of games has failed, and Google announces that it is closing the service after three years of operation

Giving in Nishi

02/10/2022

Sunday, October 02, 2022, 4:30 p.m

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It was only a matter of time, and now the moment has arrived: Google releases an official statement and announces that it is closing its gaming-streaming service - the Stadia.

The CEO of the company,

, released a statement over the past weekend in which he explained that the service did not gain the number of users that Google expected, and it was decided to close it after 3 years of faltering activity.

Google indicated that it would refund the money of all users who purchased games and expansion packs on the platform, and they will have access to their game library until

This decision is not surprising, and even at launch users reported a slow and stuttering gaming experience, and the company failed to attract the players to them en masse.

Google Stadia (photo: official website, Google)

The lack of success of the platform became clear as soon as Google reduced its ambitions and closed a game development studio, only a year after it was established specifically for the ambitious project.

Google's goal was to create exclusive games just like Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft, but the lack of interest from the audience made the company give up the idea very quickly, and it switched to a strategy where it would market only third-party games.

Although the Stadia service did not gain momentum, Google notes that the technology behind the platform has proven itself and will continue to use it on other platforms such as YouTube, Google Play or even the AR (augmented reality) technology it is developing.

The cessation of Stadia's activity has sparked an old-new discussion on the network since we moved to digital consumerism: since it is a digital product, once the company decides to close the servers, in fact consumers no longer have access to the content for which they paid their best money.

Google has stated that it will refund the subscribers' money, but companies such as Ubisoft that distribute their games on the service have already indicated that they are interested in converting subscribers from Stadia to their Ubisoft Plus service.

Google Stadia (photo: official website, Google)

Ubisoft actually wants players who subscribe to the Ubisoft + service through Stadia to switch to Ubisoft + on the computer as soon as the service closes.

Since Stadia is a streaming platform that was mainly active on mobile and smart TVs - there were quite a few players who responded to the company negatively and stated that they simply prefer to receive a refund.

Despite the lack of success of the Stadia service, it does not seem that cloud gaming technology will disappear.

I'm not one to avoid concluding that as time progresses, the use of streaming will become much more common and widespread - to a level where game consoles will be a thing of the past, and there will be no need for a physical console.

Although there is still time until this happens, and we probably won't get to experience it in the next generation, or the one after that.

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