Once considered a PlayStation competitor, Google Stadia is shutting down

Back in 2019, Google officially announced its new game streaming platform, Stadia. At the time, the tech giant envisioned Stadia as the future of gaming — a way to play all kinds of games on demand, without worrying about your computer’s specs. It all sounded impressive enough — and it actually worked pretty well under the right circumstances — but many questioned whether the world was ready for game streaming to really take off, and the traditional console and PC platforms. Ready to compete with.

And now we know the answer: the world was No After years of relative struggle, Google has decided to shut down Stadia on January 18, 2023. The company is essentially refunding all Stadia purchases up to this point — including hardware, software, and DLC — which is at least one consumer-friendly move.

You may recall that Stadia was once considered a direct competitor to the PlayStation. Or, more specifically, PlayStation Now — Sony’s own streaming service that has since been added to the overhaul. PS Plus. There was also a story going around that Sony was “terrified” of Stadia – but that was before the platform’s impressive launch in November 2019.

Of course, PS Now didn’t make up Sony’s entire business, and the Japanese giant’s success has long been built on dedicated hardware, supported by high quality software. A tried and tested model, to say the least.

Naturally, this announcement has resulted in people digging up a Stadia tweet from just over two months ago, which read: “Stadia isn’t shutting down. Rest assured we’ll be bringing more great games to the platform and Stadia Pro.” Always working to bring.” This comes after a series of reports that said the service was going to shut down.

Did you ever think that Stadia would start? Do you see game streaming becoming a mainstream option in the future? Cut the connection in the comments section below.