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Google has confirmed that Stadia will be shut down.

Google will refund all Stadia purchases, including hardware, software, and DLC. Members of the Stadia team will "carry this work forward" in other Google departments. In January, the game streaming Stadia service will be shutdown.

Google is going to shut down its cloud gaming platform Stadia. Players can access the service until January 18th, 2023. All Stadia hardware purchased from the Google Store as well as all games and add-on content purchased from the Stadia store will all be refunded by Google. Google anticipates those refunds to be finished by the middle of January.

Why google shut down Stadia?

In a statement released on Thursday, Stadia's general manager Phil Harrison confirmed that, since its launch almost three years ago, the service hadn't gained the user traction that it had anticipated. We've made the difficult decision to start winding down our Stadia streaming service even though Stadia's approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a solid technological foundation. Employees on the Stadia team will be distributed to other parts of the company.

"Gaming creators are trying to reach audiences all over the world on YouTube through videos, live streaming, and Shorts." Furthermore, our cloud streaming technology provides immersive gameplay on a massive scale.

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"A few years ago, we also launched Stadia, a consumer gaming service." And, despite Stadia's strong technological 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."

In a FAQ, Google clarified some of the finer points of the shutdown. Refunds will be issued automatically through the Google and Stadia stores, and you will not be required to return any hardware. Stadia Pro subscriptions will not be refunded, but you will not be charged during the shutdown period and will be able to access any games you may have redeemed as a Pro user until everything is shut down. Google has shut down the Stadia store, so you can't buy games or make in-game purchases.

The underlying technology platform that powers Stadia, according to Google, will be used across the company, including YouTube, Google Play, and its Augmented Reality (AR) efforts.

"We remain deeply committed to gaming, and we will continue to invest in new tools, technologies, and platforms that enable the success of developers, industry partners, cloud customers, and creators," Harrison says.

"The Stadia team has built and supported Stadia from the ground up with the same passion for games that our players have." Many Stadia team members will continue this work in other parts of the company.

"We're grateful for the team's groundbreaking work, and we look forward to continuing to have an impact across gaming and other industries by leveraging the foundational Stadia streaming technology."

A Business Insider report earlier this year claimed that Google's Stadia division had shifted its focus largely to securing deals with partners such as Peloton, Capcom, and Bungie.

Rumours spread last year that it would shut down after the number of games released on the platform slowed and the company closed its in-house game development studios. When the rumors surfaced again this year, Google insisted that Stadia would not be shutting down. "Rest assured, we're always working to bring more great games to the platform and Stadia Pro," the company said in a tweet. That was correct... until today.

The closure of Stadia comes after its decision to shut down all of its internal game development teams last year, which it claimed was made so that it could concentrate on working with outside studios.

Following that decision, several high-profile departures occurred. Former Stadia games boss Jade Raymond left to form Haven; a new studio backed by PlayStation that has since hired six more former Stadia staff members.