On January 19, Google officially shut down its Stadia cloud gaming service today. This streaming game project, which has been struggling for three years, has officially announced its end.
Launched in November 2019, the service is designed to support cloud-based gaming on a variety of devices, including PCs, Chromebooks, Macs, iPhones, and iPads.
Since announcing the closure of the service in September 2022, Google has been delivering on its promise, posting a statement claiming that any user who purchased the Stadia service while it was in operation can apply for a refund, including games, downloadable content, and controls provided by the service.
Heads up: this update will permanently disable Wi-Fi connectivity, so please wait to update your controller if you want to use it to play wirelessly on Stadia tomorrow.
Update tool: https://t.co/o0iU2x0NsV
— Stadia ☁️🎮 (@GoogleStadia) January 17, 2023
Google also began to process refunds in November, and has also stated that it will process refunds before the platform closes its services.
It is understood that the Stadia control handle is unique in that it is directly connected to the Stadia server via Wi-Fi, and each control handle contains an unused Bluetooth chip, so Google also provides functionality for the latter, And this also allows the handle to be used with local devices.
In addition, Google released the last Stadia game last week, and it was named Worm Game, a test game that also marks the end of Stadia.
At the beginning, the birth of Stadia was huge. It allowed users to play games anytime, anywhere without the help of high-end hardware devices. It was a very powerful existence at the time, but it is really a pity that it has not fallen to this point .
Finally, I hope that Google can develop a novel platform in the future to allow Stadia to return in another way.