Stadia Is Officially Shutting Down, C’est La Vie

Stadia is officially shutting down, Google has confirmed this morning. C’est la vie. The writing has technically been on the wall for a while now. So this shouldn’t surprise anyone. It also now makes sense why things like the Logitech G Cloud handheld didn’t have Stadia built-in. And why Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed titles were going to be available on Luna, but not on Stadia.

With little to no communication from the Stadia team or PR for months about upcoming features or changes, new game additions, etc., it’s hard to look back and not see that this was coming. It was just a matter of when.

As of this morning Google is calling it quits and pulling the plug. Stadia will be shutting down officially as of next year. Google says the service and the servers will stay live until January 18 of 2023. Which means that’s how long you have to enjoy your games. If you still have titles you meant to play, start prioritizing which games to go through before the shutdown. Though you could always pick up some games on another platform, if they’re available elsewhere.

Stadia is shutting down and refunds will be issued

Of course the first question on many people’s minds will be, what about all the money spent on games? And rightfully so. Google has said on more than one occasion that Stadia “wasn’t” shutting down. And whether or not that was a lie or true at the time, it doesn’t matter. The end result is the same. Subscribers spent money on games for a service they believed was going to stick around. Per Google’s own statements.

The good news is that Google is issuing refunds for almost everything related to the service. While it doesn’t look like there will be refunds for the service subscription itself (this would include Ubisoft+), Google will give refunds on nearly everything else. This includes games as well as in-game add-ons purchased through the Stadia store. It also includes any Stadia hardware purchased through the Google Store.

There is a silver lining, kind of

In a weird way, subscribers almost have a little bit of a win here. Anyone that spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on games on Stadia over the last few years is going to get that money back. And for those that completed many of those titles, that means the games were essentially free.

The downside is that people who enjoyed Stadia are losing a great service. For many Stadia loyalists, Stadia was an easy way to enjoy games when they had the time to fit them in with their busy lives. Thanks to Stadia’s lack of downloads, updates, and the like.

But nothing lasts forever. And that’s as true here as it is with anything else.