Stadia, Google’s ambitious but ultimately doomed cloud gaming service, is shutting down at the end of today, January 18. Many gamers and developers are saying goodbye to the platform, as is Stadia’s social media. As a final gesture, the service has rolled out a free game, Worm Game. It’s been a sad but somewhat heartwarming journey to Stadia’s closure, as the community celebrated its games and their time to play them one last time.
Google announced the closure of Stadia last September says general manager Phil Harrison“It hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected, so we’ve made the difficult decision to start phasing it out.” The history of the platform has been short but rocky. Are introductory announcement described it as something that would “liberate players from the constraints of traditional consoles and PCs”. While Stadia won’t live up to those ambitions, the rest of the gaming industry has embraced the potential of cloud gaming. Xbox Cloud Gaming, Amazon Luna and Nvidia’s GeForce Now will further develop the technology.
As is Stadia laid to rest, Google seems to be doing everything it can to limit the loss to users. It has offered refunds for purchased games and Stadia Pro subscriptions. This was especially necessary as users generally paid full price for games on Stadia (on top of the monthly subscription). Of course, these games will no longer be accessible after today. It has also collaborated with game developers including IO Interactive and Rockstar games — to allow users to export their saved files to other platforms. It’s been a strong collective effort, all things considered.
Google also updated the Stadia controller, so those who have one can unlock Bluetooth mode and use it with PCs and mobile devices that aren’t tied to Stadia. It’s not all happy updates, though – some exclusive games won’t be available anywhere else. Splash damage announced in October that it will not port its game Outcasters to another platform. Q-Games has expressed interest in porting his game PixelJunk to other platforms, but so far this has not happened.
Stadia may not have been around that long, but it was an interesting footnote in gaming history. The fans still have a few hours to play Worm Game on the platform, which officially closes at 11:59 PM Pacific Time.
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