Google Stadia officially shutting down in January 2023 before the cloud gaming service ever released in India
Google will refund all Stadia hardware, games and add-on content purchases made by users.
Google has officially announced that they’ll be shutting down their cloud gaming streaming platform Google Stadia in January 2023, just three years after its launch. There have been persistent rumours about Google’s cloud gaming service facing its eventual demise but they have now been confirmed. Google says Google Stadia will shut down for good by January 18th, 2023. They will also refund all Stadia hardware, games and add-on content purchases made by users.
Google Stadia shuts down
The company said Stadia will remain operational until January but the store has been shut down immediately. Players can no longer buy additional games on the platform. As for the refunds, all Stadia hardware bought from Google Store and all games and add-on content bought from Stadia Store will be refunded. Google says these refunds will be made by mid-January and that the Google Stadia hardware does not have to be returned to the company.
Many predicted that Google Stadia would be shutting down since it never really got going in a market dominated by services like the Xbox Cloud Gaming, which has many games to offer, thanks to the Xbox Game Pass. The most recent hint of Stadia’s demise was the launch of Logitech G Cloud, which is a new gaming handheld device based on cloud gaming. While the device supports Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce Now, it did not include Google Stadia as a supported service.
Stadia vice president and GM Phil Harrison said, “A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia.” He added, “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.”
What is Cloud Gaming and is it available in India?
Cloud Gaming basically allows a gamer to play games instantly on their devices without having to install and store a game on their device. Think of it like Netflix for games but don’t confuse it with Netflix Games. Anyway, Netflix and Prime Video are a few of the many OTT platforms out there. These services allow us to watch any movie, at any time by simply streaming the movie on their platform. Similarly, Cloud Gaming is a streaming platform to play games.
Instead of running FIFA 23, for example, on your console or PC, you can simply use the internet to stream and play this game while it runs on a powerful server somewhere else. So, basically, cloud gaming requires just your PC or Phone, regardless of its computing power, and it can stream that game effortlessly for you to play using the Internet.
Sounds great indeed but unfortunately, there is no major cloud gaming service in India. Google Stadia was one of the major cloud gaming services and it met its end before ever seeing the light of day in India. There are several cloud gaming services available in major parts of the world but none has been released so far in India. The list included Stadia alongside Xbox Cloud Gaming, Amazon Luna, NVIDIA GeForce Now and PlayStation Now.
At this moment, there are no official plans announced by Xbox, Amazon or NVIDIA to bring their cloud gaming services to India. From the looks of it, Indian gamers would have to wait until next year for some plans to bring cloud gaming to India.