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What today’s message about Stadia means for players

StadiaTeam
Stadia Employee
Stadia Employee
165 423 36.4K

Stadia players, you may already have seen the message shared on Google’s main blog just now. This is a short recap of the most important information for players from the main post:    

 

  • You will continue to have access to your games library through January 18, 2023 so you can complete final play sessions and move your progress to alternate platforms where possible.

  • Commerce functionality (the ability to buy games, new subscriptions, add-ons or in-game purchases) on Stadia has now been disabled.

  • Google will offer a full refund of all Stadia hardware purchases (Stadia Controller, Stadia Founder’s Edition, Stadia Premiere Edition, or Play and Watch with Google TV Package) made in the Google Store and all purchases of games and in-game transactions made in the Stadia Store. 

  • The refund process will take us some time to complete, and we expect to have the majority of refunds completed by the middle of January 2023. Please allow us until this time before contacting our support team regarding the status of your refund(s).

  • Stadia Pro subscription payments will not be eligible for refund, but if you are an active subscriber, you will continue to have access to your library without charge during the shut-down period.

 

As we begin the work of processing refunds to customers, Stadia customer service agents will not be able to provide more information to you at this time. For information and updates, please review the information on our Help Center, which will include new information as it becomes available. We’ll also contact players directly via email shortly with more information.

 

We want to thank you for taking this journey with us: in particular, the Founders and fans who have been with us from the beginning. The Stadia team poured the same passion for games into our work building and supporting Stadia as you have shown us each day in your play. 

 

Posted by Stadia Team

423 Comments
bhrd
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

What about controllers purchased outside of the google store? Paid 60 bucks for this at Best Buy and now it’s piece of junk?

Marc2000
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Yo Stadians lets move to Xbox S :beaming_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Hostile
Founder
Founder

@DavonXP Xbox has a cloud service called Xbox gamepass ultimate. It's got its own problems... they all do... but it's OK! Costs about $15/mo. Works a lot like Stadia just not on nearly as many devices. Should work for your laptop just fine though if Stadia did!

Emagoelas
Community Member

How to

Beron
Community Member

Really sad news, it was an awesome service. I've not used it all that much, was pro for a few months and played the free games and bought Red Dead 2 on it.

Always worked perfectly, loved the way you could play from any device, quick loading times and top notch graphics. It's a shame it didn't attract more players.
I will surely miss you Stadia, thanks for the three years.

HCharacter
Community Member

Very sad to hear/read this, me and my gf really liked the Stadia-platform. It was very convenient to play co-op games together, even when other one was traveling with just only a laptop and a phone. Hundreds of hours put in several co-op games gave us great memories from our adventures in RDO, Borderlands 3 and others.

Yeah, there were couple of flaws and it was sometimes hard to find new interesting games to be played, but @StadiaTeam  built the best platform for a casual cloud gaming. It is really sad to see Stadia come to an end.

Thank you for 2 years, it was a blast!

anykey
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

This is breaking my heart since stadia is the only way I can play the old "jump and run" style. no updates needed just mac, ipad whatever on and a quick round of fifa. A very sad day. At least Kudos for hopefully refunding the bought games, its quiet some money for me. best wishes to all the probably heartbroken stadia employes. google played us all, telling us over and over again stadia is save here to stay ;(.

View92612
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

@Hostile  Yes.  I have tried out all the different services including Stadia, Amazon Luna, Geforce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming (Part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate), and Playstation Now(now part of Playstation+ Premium ).  They all have their pros and cons.

Google Stadia:  Best stability. Limited selection.

Amazon Luna: Very similar to Stadia in terms of stability and selection but different pricing model. I suspect it may not last much longer.

Geforce Now:  Stability on par as Stadia, Larger selection. Hardware only. 

Xbox Cloud Gaming:  Good but not perfect stability.  Almost constantly get new games with some AAA selections.  EA Play included. IMO the most convincing offering.

Playstation Now:  Worst stability/quality but second best selection and can play PS4 exclusive titles. I played Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War 2018 on it.

I suspect chances are the final major players would end up being XGP and PS+.

I do very much appreciate having Stadia so that I could play Judgment on PC and having Amazon Luna to play Lost Judgment. I almost bought an Xbox console or PS4 just for those 2 games. It was good that I did not because those two games just released on PC last week.

Thanks! Stadia.  

 

Commonlink
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Its ok, there will be other gaming investments google, for instance a physical google handheld pixle gaming handheld console merged into a slider gamepad pile smartphone and put a nvidia lite chip in it w 12 gigs of ram and 3 terabit drive ( I would buy ). Thank you all for your hard work and for the opportunity of having a flagship console gameplay experience with a seamless access advantage online and none of the hardware mess. I'll never forget day one 2 years ago... felt like christmas in july....

Cellshade
Founder
Founder

I can't believe this... 
I know it was always hard to convince the fanboys but please leave some sort of functionality online ..

You are just 5years ahead and if you had technically speaking the best product in the market.
Kudos to the engineers, PM's and stadia employees, I hope you can bring this knowledge further

Burntaces
Founder
Founder

Stadia was an amazing cloud gaming platform and had an awesome community. I’ve always thought it was impressive how I could log onto almost any machine and boot up a +100GB game like Destiny 2 in a matter of seconds. Long load times, patch and game downloads were a thing of the past. 

I particularly liked the instant-replay functionality built into Stadia so you could record and share your favourite moments with friends. The fact that you could upload videos to YouTube in just a couple of clicks was amazing and it didn’t require any expensive graphics cards to get great in-game recording quality. 

The ability to play, chat and speak with friends all within the Stadia platform made it so easy and seamless to jump into and between games with friend parties. 

I feel like the amazing Destiny 2 integration with crossplay was perfect for showcasing how impressive Stadia was as a cloud gaming platform. 

Will certainly miss Stadia, it has grown a lot over the years. It was an awesome journey! 

ChargerFan559
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

 

STADIA R.I.P. 

Its life taken from us way too soon. 

Such of waste of unlimited potential. 

Just another senseless murder by corporate idiocracy.

Fly to the angels young Stadia. 

Everytime I spend my money on whatever gaming platform

I go on to next, You will always be remembered. 

Stadia, gone but not forgotten. R.I.P :baby_angel:

Honesty21
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

@StadiaTeam 

 

This saddens me.  No joke.  First gaming platform with no console that I've ever come in contact with. I was so happy with this. I still am. Please don't go.  Please :folded_hands:

@StadiaTeam 

Riccardo_89
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I cannot believe that you are closing Stadia in this way. Stadia is wonderful and you have not invested in. We have few Triple A because you have not invested, but the service was astonishing good. It's wonderful to be able to play Red Dead Redemption 2 on a MacBook Air or TV with nothing. I think you haven't tried hard enough. You had a beautiful service in your hand, and you are burning it. This is very sad. 

Boson
Founder
Founder

Question:
What does Betamax have in common with Stadia?

Answer:

Spoiler
Both were the superior technologies at their time and both were cancelled too soon!

 

 

 

I am very sad about Google's decision to discontinue Stadia. I liked being able to play the latest games (e.g. CyberPunk 2077) on low-end hardware.

I hope Google reverses its cancellation plans!

Thanks @StadiaTeam .

Riccardo_89
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I don't know how can I express my sadness. When I start to use Stadia, I really thought it was an amazing invention, the best of the last years. You have not invested in marketing and in new Triple A. You were the first to not believe in it, and I don't understand why. It seems that also Hideo Kojima was in contact with you for a game in exclusive. You simply needed a very good game in exclusive, only one, to definitely lunch Stadia. No, instead you are closing everything and this is far more costly because you have to refund everybody. I cannot believe it and I don't understand. 

jsncttn
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I was the target audience for Stadia... I didn't have the luxury of being able to play at home, but I could find pockets of time to play during quick breaks or commute. Loved the platform and was happy to discover gaming again. Probably going to have to give it up again... and I'm really bitter about this.

I've come to the conclusion that Google is the deadbeat dad of the tech industry. They bring awesome products into the world that they inevitably just abandon and refuse to support.

redcoat
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

please let us use our controllers with bluetooth. or wifi.. or both. 

Wanderer69
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Can you least give the controllers some type of update where they can use Bluetooth or wifi to connect?

DavisA85
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Gutted! You could have at least given it another year. So much wasted potential. We just had new UI, FIFA 23 launching on the platform, Skull & Bones & Dead Island 2 coming next year. With the upcoming country expansions, it would have helped in the long run.

The sad thing is that you have the best cloud tech out of all the cloud gaming platforms and it will be going to waste.

The Stadia team did an amazing job, and I applaud them for all their hard work. It’s a shame that the people higher up don’t appreciate it enough to keep going!

GLYTCH4324
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I'm in denial right now. I'm not even worried about the money spent; I just simply don't want this platform to die. I LOVE how easy it is for me to pick up the Stadia controller and start gaming on my Google TV immediately with no effort (and no bulky console and mess of cables). Nothing else gives me this option right now to stream to the TV so easily. I tried GeForce, but I'm not getting the same fluid experience as I get with Stadia. My wife and I love Stadia so much that we have two Stadia controllers for every room with a Google TV (living room, bedroom, and office) plus two extra for when we travel to make it that much more convenient to start gaming whenever the mood strikes us. We really can't get that seamless TV integration anywhere else. If XCloud ever makes it to Google TV I can try that, but I'm not optimistic with that either. I know there are other options for other devices (PC's, handhelds like the new Logitech G Cloud, Amazon Luna, etc), but we prefer gaming on TV's without having to have another device running in the background to cast. I really wish this wasn't happening. I'd give anything for Google to be the ultimate library for all of my digital media (games, movies, music, books, etc.) on top of everything else I touch through the day whether that's Android Auto on my way to work where I use G-Suite on my Pixelbook or jamming music on my Pixel Buds casted from my Pixel Phone or telling Google "Goodnight" which prompts all the smart lights at home to shutoff and doors to lock. I've surrounded myself with Google products because I truly believe in Google's mission and who they are as a company. It just saddens me that I won't be able to keep gaming with them. Maybe from a business standpoint it wasn't profitable enough, or maybe the tech didn't seem sustainable with future predictions for the gaming industry, but it was absolutely the best product with the most potential in my mind. Don't think I'll be gaming for a little while until I see something else on par with the experience that Stadia gave me.

ray3473
Founder
Founder

**bleep**! Thank you Stadia Team for 3 awesome years I may lose my games but I gain new friends.

Starchild
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Why didn't you sell Stadia instead of shutting it down?

If you shut it down, you completely lose all of its value. But you had really great tech architecture and a lot of loyal fans. In the hands of one of the big three gaming companies, Stadia could have gone a long way. The only way it really failed was not having a wide enough user base. But if you're Xbox or PlayStation, you already have the user base on hand--and that was the only missing piece! I don't understand why this didn't go up for sale. We should be happily using this technology under another name. Just transfer the customers and the tech assets! Don't shut it down!

mikeyy164
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

This is terrible .. I never liked gaming until one day running into stadia. This breaks my heart that it going to end . This was part of my new journey in life . Thanks team for giving me this experience. It's made a difference in my life . Come back some way don't waist the talents you have . 

Supermanofsteel
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I like many others will never trust a Google product again. You were awesome, now terrible. Please can you unlock all the Chromecast and controller's so they work on other platforms. 

Ivan
Platinum Stadia Guide
Platinum Stadia Guide

@Supermanofsteel Chromecast already work on other things. In fact, Chromecast Ultra was released in 2016, way before Stadia was launched.

Honesty21
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

That's true 

@Supermanofsteel 

rykspop
Community Member

So sad to see you go. I have been playing since my founders edition controller arrived. I too have spent many an hour playing Stadia and bragging that I was the only one who could game from anywhere. I am probably done with gaming as I don't want to buy a console anymore. I got spoiled by just bringing my controller and chromecast dongle with me.

der96er
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Danke für die schönen 3 Jahre liebes Google stadia Team.

Rip :disappointed_face:

hamiljoen
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

They shouldn't lock the game library, but give everybody a free Stadia Pro experience till the end. Let's go out with a bang.

Grafspee89
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I'm really sad about reading theese news. But unformatelly I've expected that....

Game Libary is not ok. There were delays also. (For Example Mafia 3 with more than a year...)

Missing AAA games.

But the platform was really good and available from 2020 in Hungary.

It showed us a console where you can play with Controller and Keyboard+mouse also. It was my dream after Xbox 360 console was released.

I think the main problem that google didn't want to invest enough...

 

 

skritlax1269
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Very sad news but we have to say thank you Stadia Team for all your work and effort to try to make it work.

EquinoxAlpha
Founder
Founder

Ironically I had cancelled my Stadia Pro and bought a PS5 a week ago. Talk about good timing. 

It was obvious Stadia had died following month on month of shovel ware.

die_apple
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

i hope google A.I. reads this

initiate reverse time constraints

recurrent, repetitive :slightly_smiling_face:

Fuaga23
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

*beep* *beep* *beep* I will never ever trust Google again with a service. Over 200 Games, 2 Stadio Pro Sets and all will be gone! What the *beep* ! Total betrayal of you customers. 

menosesmas
Founder
Founder

Thanks to all Stadia Team for the amazing tech we had for 3 years.

Best cloud gaming platform while lasted.

IMHO had this been windows based, and connected with other platforms, so zero porting was needed, it could have been different.

Best wishes to you all! :red_heart:

campusito
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I am so sad...This service was good for players like me who don't have powerful computers or big hard drives.I am gonna really miss the service.

Stace
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Thanks for the Money great investment.

Barthandelus
Silver Stadia Guide
Silver Stadia Guide

Stadia even after shutdown will remain the most powerfull streaming service from ages !

That was a pleasure to play on Stadia and I regreat nothing.
Hope Google will not end projects around games !

El1
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

:disappointed_face: Nooo!!! Q_Q, change your mind and reconsider please??

Nath
Founder
Founder

As a founder and enthusiast of future tech, often stuff that's too early for its time, I'm disappointed but ultimately not surprised after watching things play out between launch, then Google giving up on a long term commitment to first party content with the closure of SG&E, and then seeing the amount of compelling AAA content dwindle over time. I usually get every platform/console and was even an OnLive subscriber and microconsole owner back in the day as well, so this isn't my first rodeo with a cloud game service shutting down, though never before at this scale.

It's too bad that Google couldn't hang on to Stadia and work out a way to integrate it and transfer the available games into a successful future platform that caught on, like streaming Stadia games into a mixed reality environment with upcoming AR/XR headset platforms, or make Stadia accessible directly via YouTube instead of the isolated website. Stadia.com was too compartmentalized away from the rest of Google and easily ignored by people using other Google products. I'm told that Stadia didn't even come pre-installed on Pixel phones (I use iPhone, so I wouldn't know.) I was thinking of switching to Pixel 7 this year, but now I'm soured on buying any further into Google than I already am with my Nest/Home ecosystem and other things that everyone uses like YouTube and Gmail. Bundling a first party Backbone-style controller with Pixel phones and a 3-month trial of Stadia would've been nice, and most importantly reversing course and investing in first party content after February 2021 when the "vision" for what cloud gaming "could be" that traditional consoles couldn't deliver on basically died and it became a place for nothing other than ports.

Most of the other founders I know that were excited about the future of gaming in the cloud left after SG&E closed. So many people around at launch were less excited about ports and more excited about the 3-5+ year vision of a killer app coming out that could deliver something that traditional consoles couldnt even deliver, like a game with so much unique content that it couldnt fit on local hard drives, or massive battles that couldnt be coordinated over home networks the way it could be set up in high power data centers. What a shame. Many of the people I tried recommending Stadia to were reluctant to try it because they thought Google had a reputation for shutting down services and they preferred to have more tangible or at least downloaded copies of their games for that reason. This shutdown has just further proved their suspicion and boldened this mark against Google's brand. This further drives down consumer trust in Google's brand in that respect, especially for new products or services that people might be skeptical of trying out of concern that it'll end up in the Google graveyard.

Stadia still works so much better than the alternative cloud gaming options, but this doesn't mean that we're excited to see Google execs pivot the technology into some other application. Don't expect many people, consumer market at least, to care about trying anything Google applies this technology to unless it's in partnership with a separate company that has enough consumer trust in its brand to make up for the negative trust in Google's brand resulting from Stadia (among other things.) So many of us wanted to see Google make big investments for the long term/future and buy studios the way the competition was buying up talent, not merely paying big money for "mee too" ports of mostly older games. The vision at GDC 2019 was amazing. It's too bad that Google couldn't commit to that vision and see it through, integrating it into the future XR platforms or other parts of the Google ecosystem. A lot of people are going to feel more comfortable buying into the competition's AR/XR platforms and holding off on Google's offering after seeing how they handled Stadia. 

I've wanted Google's cloud gaming efforts to succeed from the days of Project Stream. I've been an enthusiast, but I generally avoid falling into the rose colored glasses groupthink that others do, so I'm ultimately not surprised, just very disappointed. As much as there are "go team" Google fans around here who are apologetic to every misstep, this is a valuable lesson in why it's important to listen to people who are reasonable in their criticisms. The supporter/fan vs hater/detractor dichotomy is a false one, there are also people who wanted to see this succeed and were optimistic, but who were reasonably concerned that this would inevitably happen with how things were managed. 

Thanks for trying. Hopefully Google's strategic management wakes up at some point in the future and realizes that they're biggest project/task ahead isn't AI, but is is going to be making up for the reputation brand-value/trust/image issue that they've cultivated by making these kinds of missteps. Full refunds for purchases and hardware is great, but losing save games that aren't transferrable to other platforms is a big loss. I didn't have pro active when the closure was announced so I'm also completely locked out of finishing up some games before January that I had partially played in the Pro library I'd collected, which is frustrating.

Google needs a Phil Spencer type of attitude right now. He really did an amazing job digging Xbox out of the customer-perception hole it was in after the terrible launch era of the Xbox One with Kinect. When it comes to consumer perception Google's going to have to do some serious brand-salvaging work it ever hopes to bring any former Stadia enthusiasts into anything remotely resembling a "commitment to gaming" in possible future AR/XR platform. Otherwise, just like Stadia launched with many influencers and tech sites posting "It's probably going to fail and be shut down, don't bother" type of content, any future platform will be sprinting out of the gate with an even bigger anchor working against its attempt to build something moving forward.  I can expect this will cast a shadow over this upcoming Thursday's Made by Google event as well. 

Thank you to the customer/community facing Stadia team and engineers for doing a great job. Strategic management, though, not so much. I'll be looking forward to reading the case study in business school marketing and strategic management textbooks about Google's missteps with Stadia. 

JMegg21
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Does anyone know how to move the games to another cloud service because I'm really not trying to lose all the game hours and progress I've put on since joining stadia because like a lot of posting I see from other members it's crazy how out the blue things got shut down and handled 

Loomer73
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I am so bummed about this, I can't even tell ya. Stadia was so easy, immersive, and inclusive for a guy like me. By "guy like me" I mean the casual gamer. A guy that is way too busy with life, and a guy that cannot justify spending lots of money on consoles, or gaming PCs. I didn't have to spend a dime on anything else other than games after making the initial purchase of the controller, and I loved that. Stadia introduced me to PUBG, which has become my favorite game of all time. It was a fantastic way for me to blow off steam after a rough day at work, and played on Stadia so fluidly. I have played PUBG on a console, and it sucks compared to Stadia with the slow framerates. I am truly pissed and heartbroken, and will miss the hell out of Stadia.

jemelissa9
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Amazing technology that never got to reach it's full potential or the audience it deserved. It's the only platform I've backed and saw a true future in. Would love to see Bluetooth unlocked on the controllers so they all aren't just thrown out as trash, adding to the ever growing heap of useful technological resources that we as a country waste so carelessly. Hopefully they'll see to it that at least parts of their hardware can be found useful in other areas. That being said I look forward to seeing where this technology will rise up in AR field as that has definitely caught my interest. But very disappointed that google made less than a weak effort to give stadia the legs it not only earned, but very much deserved, to run in this fast moving race. Enjoyed it while it lasted. Thanks.... But also, no thanks. 

maxmus
Community Member

What a sad day!

As a middle-aged man busy with life, Stadia's easy-to-use interface and instant-on system were exactly what I needed to get back to casual gaming. It reignited my passion for FIFA and Aassisan's Creeds. I have had many great memory playing games on Stadia. Too bad the business model didn't pan out. 

Huge Kudos and gratitude to the teams behind Statia. You all made this possible and the system was a delight to use. I hope somehow you can bring the stadia back at some point(I will pay for the pro this time, I promise!). I think consoles are going to extinct eventually. Streaming like this should be the mainstream. It is more economical and environmental anyway.

 

Username3
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I expected this. I'm surprised Android isn't in the Graveyard yet. Google brings and kills.

ChargerFan559
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Can I get my refund in Dogecoin please? 

NOLTEMANN
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I gave away my PS5 to stick with STADIA... At least can you unlock the BLUETOOTH feature to use the controller with other devices? Or do you prefer to create more plastic waste?

Marc2000
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Stadia quit becouse Google moves cloud gaming to YouTube Games. I think that Stadia was only test.

jobo1jobo2
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Well, congratulations, you just did not only lose me as a Stadia Player, but also as a customer of other Google products.

I just cancelled my Google One Subscription and some days before this misery I even thought about buying a Pixel Phone, as my current phone is getting old. But the trust in you and the lasting of your products is gone.

Stadia was so awesome, I had so much great and fun hours playing.

The biggest benefits for me were: no noisy and hot box standing around collecting dust, and nothing to justify in front of my fiancee.

It's so sad. And such a shame. And so sad.

Please make the controller usable via Bluetooth, it's the least you can do for us.