Google Stadia going to the graveyard in January 2023
Cloud gaming is losing Google Stadia come January 2023 and yet another Google service will have a headstone in the Google Graveyard (which already has a headstone for it as of today).
In a blog posted today, Phil Harrison, VP/GM of Stadia states that hardware purchases will be refunded, and players will have access until January 18, 2023 to play their final sessions. All game and add-on content is listed as well, although I’d be hesitant to go out and purchase a bunch of things expecting that you’re going to get refunded.
I met Stadia at the worst possible time, and every time I came back to play with it the free offerings felt like they were punking me. But it had and has potential and it is a bit sad to see Google once again have a great idea and then execute it in an ok format and fail to get traction.
Then again, they attempted to enter a gaming market that was pretty much cornered by the console kings, didn’t bring a whole lot of extra oomph to the game, and came at a time where the initial experience was meh to terrible due to early Zoom/Pandemic problems.
I feel sad about its passing. It was nice to have at least one gaming service that didn’t require major investment in hardware, or helping to finance a rocketship to nowhere.
[Google Blog]
