Heading into 2023, we received news that Google Stadia were closing down the platform and ceasing operations after the service had "hadn't gained the traction with users" the company had hoped within the gaming community. Today will sadly mark the final day for Google Stadia, with servers due to close at 8am UTC on 19th January in the UK.
In a September 2022 blog post written by Vice President and General Manager of Stadia, Phil Harrison, he states, "we’re grateful to the dedicated Stadia players that have been with us from the start. We will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store."
Google Stadia allowed players to pick up games that they maybe wouldn't have been able to run on their own machines, including Remedy's recent adventure, Control.
Control Ultimate Edition launched on Google Stadia on July 27th 2021 for $39.99. The release was teased back in May of that year and released alongside Marvel's Avengers and Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game. Those who purchased Control on Google Stadia should have received a refund by today.
While the platform is no longer available, Google have announced plans to allow players to use the Stadia Bluetooth controller on other devices. Its legacy will also live on across other platforms, with Harrison stating "The underlying technology platform that powers Stadia has been proven at scale and transcends gaming. We see clear opportunities to apply this technology across other parts of Google like YouTube, Google Play, and our Augmented Reality (AR) efforts — as well as make it available to our industry partners, which aligns with where we see the future of gaming headed. We remain deeply committed to gaming, and we will continue to invest in new tools, technologies and platforms that power the success of developers, industry partners, cloud customers and creators."
