Google Stadia PlayStation
Image: Push Square

Back in 2019, Google officially announced its new game streaming platform, Stadia. At the time, the tech juggernaut framed Stadia as the future of gaming — a way to play all kinds of games on demand, without having to worry about your computer's specifications. It all sounded rather impressive — and it actually worked fairly well, under the right circumstances — but many questioned whether the world was ready for game streaming to really kick off, and compete with traditional console and PC platforms.

And now we know the answer: the world was not ready. Following several years of relative struggle, Google has decided to shut Stadia down on the 18th January, 2023. The company is actually refunding all Stadia purchases up until this point — which includes hardware, software, and DLC — which is at least a consumer-friendly move.

You may remember that Stadia was once considered a direct competitor to PlayStation. Or, more specifically, PlayStation Now — Sony's own streaming service that has since been folded into the overhauled PS Plus. There was even a story going around that Sony was "terrified" of Stadia — but that was before the platform's unimpressive launch in November 2019.

Of course, PS Now didn't make up the entirety of PlayStation's 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 two months ago, which reads: "Stadia is not shutting down. Rest assured we're always working on bringing more great games to the platform and Stadia Pro." This was after a string of reports said that the service was on its way out.

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

[source blog.google, via theverge.com]