Google Stadia to End in January 2023; Announces Refund Plans and More

Google announced their cloud gaming service, Stadia, will come to an end on Jan. 18, 2023.

Phil Harris, vice president and general manager for Stadia, offered the following insight into the decision:

A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia. And while Stadia’s approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a strong technology foundation, it hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected so we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service.
Google Blog

Despite the end of Stadia, Google is still committed to gaming and will offer support in another way.

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.
Google Blog

While this is unfortunate news, the blog post also confirmed Google will offer refunds for select situations.

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… We expect to have the majority of refunds completed by mid-January, 2023. We have more details for players on this process on our Help Center.
Google Blog

Unfortunately, this will not extend to current or previous Pro subscribers.

Q: Are you refunding my Stadia Pro subscription?
A: We will not be refunding Stadia Pro subscriptions. Players who held an active Stadia Pro subscription as of September 29, 2022 will not be charged for access to their Pro library or other subscription entitlements during the shut-down period.
Google Support

Finally, for those curious about how this will work with hardware, Google offered the following insight with more details to follow shortly.

Q: Do I have to return my hardware to get a refund?
A: Most hardware purchases (Stadia Controller, Founders Edition, Premiere Edition, and Play and Watch with Google TV packages) made directly from Google will not need to be returned. More details on how to obtain a refund for your Stadia hardware purchases will be posted here in the coming weeks.
Google Support

Grant Gaines

Hey, my name is Grant and I'm the Managing Editor, main reviewer and cover technology for Infinite Start. I've learned a lot over the years working for a variety of websites and reviewing literally hundreds of titles. I also have a background selling televisions, sound systems and more from my period at Best Buy, to the point where I was in the top 1 percent for sales and became Magnolia certified. I always look forward to sharing new and different information with our readers and hope they do as well. If you would like to contact me, my email is grant period gaines at Infinite Start.