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Google Stadia officially ends service today

Rest in peace, sweet cloud-based gaming platform. We hardly knew ye.

TJ Denzer

January 18, 2023 12:05 PM

Image via Google

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Two months ago, Google officially announced that it would be winding down and discontinuing service on Google Stadia. That final shutdown comes today. After a little over 3 years of activity and so much promise for cloud-based gaming, the platform was unable to ever fully get a foothold in the gaming space. While the controller should still be usable in other applications with an update, Stadia is officially shutting down service for good as of today.

Google shared some final details about Stadia’s shutdown via the Stadia website. As of January 18, 2023, the Google Stadia servers will shut down, cutting access to the library of titles offered through the service, which included Destiny 2 and Cyberpunk 2077. Groups like Bungie have attempted to put up cross-save measures to help get player’s game progress over to other platforms, but it obviously can’t be done in all cases. Nonetheless, Google also launched a new Bluetooth update for the Stadia controller that deactivates its Wi-Fi connectivity capabilities, but allows it to play with Bluetooth enabled platforms. This update is available for free to all owners of the Stadia controller.

Google Stadia was originally launched in 2019 on the back of extremely lofty promises. Phil Harrison and other leads of the division claimed it would offer 4K gaming with very little lag, full crossplay support where applicable, and wireless controller support to make for a console-free game-streaming experience. Unfortunately, many of these promises fell short or had to implemented in updates down the line. Meanwhile, Stadia failed to gain traction even after updates improved the service.

Refunds for Google Stadia should have also been processed by today, but if they haven’t, the FAQ page may be able to answer any issues customers have. With Stadia finally shutting down, do you have any good or bad memories of the platform? Pour one out in the Chatty section below.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.