Google Stadia Is Shutting Down, Which Is Good News For Xbox

Oh Noes! Those two guys that bought a big library of games on their stream only platform are going to be losing their entire game libraries!!!

My main thought: the Stadia controller I got for free is going to become a collectors item!!! Yay!

I always thought their controller looked like a cheap $25 dollar last for 2 months 3rd party controller.

Stadia was different though as they wanted you to pay full price each game for just streaming, what they did have better than gamepass though is full HD for mobile streaming which worked quite well with no lag.

Did Google acquire any studios? If so I wonder what happens to them.

They better put out a firmware update that’s lets me use that controller with Bluetooth connection outside of stadia use. It’s gonna be really annoying having a controller that only works via wired connection and limited at that.

@Ashadelo The controller actually has a nice quality feel to it. Cant tell you how it plays since I have never actually used it, though. I got it for free with some liquidation deal that happened a while back. Think it can actually be used as a standard controller on steam.

@UltimateOtaku91 They acquired the studio behind Savage Planet, but shut it down right after XBox bought Zenimax, because they realized instantly how expensive it would be to truly compete in the world of gaming.

That sucks a lot, they could had just attempted to re-sell the studio, but in typical google fashion, they killed it instead.

The technology was there, but the business model was flawed from the start.

I expected the software to be refunded because you can't play it anymore but I didn't expect them to refund the hardware as well.

I was never a fan of this idea but this is good news for Microsoft and even for Stadia ex-players because Xbox/Game Pass is overall a better service, more reliable, with all the gaming options and future-proof.

@Tharsman They kill off the studio... But the original team got back together, and got the rights back.

EDIT: The new studios is names Raccoon Logic studio

@Tharsman that's not good, journey to the savage planet was a decent fun game as well. Did they even get chance to release another game.

@themightyant Let's not give them kudos yet. We need to learn how easy it'll be to get the refund first. (Saying this as Stadia founder with a library of 30 purchased games)

@UltimateOtaku91 I don't think so, no. I would imagine they were working on something that also got canned as part of the closure. I mean, Savage Planet had just launched when they got acquired, I think. They must have been working on their next title.

It failed (especially in the US) I truly believe because infrastructure is simply not here. At least not yet. Internet speeds not there and the disgusting, anti-consumer, data caps.

In 10 more years, maybe. Maybe.

@AverageGamer Thats good to hear. I do recall back then a move to get jobs for those people in other studios, though, so am sure at least some talent was lost to that recruitment spree.

@Tharsman All the more reason to support and continue to have physical media.

So shocking that Google would shut down Stadia. This is something nobody saw coming.

Oh wait, this is something more or less everyone saw coming......

I forgot about this service

What is this google stadia

That Gylt game from Tequila Works better be getting ports sometime soon, as it was the ONLY game I had any interest in.

@Tharsman imagine google complaining things are too expensive ...

Feel sorry for the employees , apart from phil Harrison

Google is an absolute embarrassment of a company. Say what you want about Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple... etc. They aren't scare to try and stick to thing that aren't successful off the bat even if it hurt their bottomline.

Oh… such a shame 🤣

@Clankylad when it's good competition with a good product with good consumer moves and a good business model then yes. Otherwise it just "exists" with no real meaningful competition.

I always knew it would eventually fail because streaming isn't the future like people think it is. If you want evidence that it's not the future, this is the evidence.

Say wrvr u want about stadia but i was able to play cyberpunk on day 1 with my crappy computer. For ps4 i refunded the game day 1

@Kaloudz I think tencent or embracer could enter the hardware or subscription service game.

According to embracer groups website they have 130 studios and own or control the rights to 850 IPs. They could offer a decent library for a sub service.

At least they are doing refunds

@J_Mo_Money Google complains a lot about expenses. They are very stingy, and only reason they pay their engineers well is because they would easily be pouched by other competitors in a heart beat if they didn't offer competitive compensation.

In my experience, google customer support is atrocious and that is precisely because they refuse to staff those segments, they consider them unnecessary expenses. This is my experience and opinion, though.

i feel bad for those who have buyed games on their services, thats why we should be aware that buying only streamable games are a bad idear,let's be clear streaming and cloud gaming should be only allowed has subscribtion service only, you can't own streaming content 🤦‍♂️is it a good sign or bad sign of what should never happen in the future.

Perfect time for google to partner with Sony… that would make things very interesting

Though I think we all saw this coming, I’m sad to hear they are shutting it down. I never took part in Stadia, but more competition is a good thing.

nothing good really came out from google stadia it's really sad they are a failure from the start they have shut down beloved game studios they didn't believe in their product and they had the odacity to give lessons about games ownership and being unable to stream your owned games and each game was full price they were living in their own planet disconected from the day to day gamers purchase behavior if you adding that gamepass was available for 10 $ 100 hundred games and more it was meant to fail.

@Snake_V5 Too many people act like they have all this insight on the future of gaming when they are just reciting hype they heard from other people.

I doubt there was enough people using Stadia to really make a blip on any of its competitors as far as customers moving to another service. Google is giving refunds across the board for it. It's a great gesture for sure but I'd imagine they are doing that because so few people signed up for it anyway that they aren't really losing any sleep over the money lost on it.

Left out the part where they placed some of the blame on MS and their “buying spree”.

@themightyant I already the FAQ. But i have games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and FF15 that paid and beat 3 years during the launch months. I'll be surprised if they honor a full refund for that.

I don't consider myself a fool for jumping on a sinking ship. As a tech geek and a gamer, the idea of Stadia interest me. It was a new space with interesting tech. I'm glad that I was able to leave my mark.

While Stadia didn't get any games. I still consider Stadia to be the best streaming service compared to xCloud, GeForce Now, Shadow PC... etc.

Streaming is rubbish. Ive tried it but its very unstable for me personally. My Internet is ok but obviously not good enough.

I don't see this as being good for Game Pass. If they had actually tried to compete it would push Microsoft to keep improving their service.

As far as who else might enter the gaming space, Amazon and Netflix still have aspirations. Netflix doesn't seem to want to be a true competitor to console/pc, but they might be able to carve out a niche for themselves. Amazon doesn't seem scared to throw their money around. I know they've canceled projects, but if they're willing to put so much into one LOTR show then I can easily see them burning cash to try to compete in gaming.

I'm increasingly convinced that Google's actual business model involves inventing failed business units to liquidate for some kind of tax loophole. Have they ever started a new service that didn't end up in liquidation other than Google Music which got merged with Youtube? Home Speakers...that's their one long-term product other than Search/Docs/Maps.

@Snake_V5 Streaming has been the inevitable future of all media since 1999. Companies have always got ahead of themselves when the tech and market wasn't ready, I remember AOL Time Warner merging entirely around the idea that all news, video, and music will be streamed over the internet and we all laughed at them. And then they failed and broke up. But those of us that laughed at them got egg on our face when it inevitably happened just later, and with other companies. But it happened to music. It happened to video. It's happening to games. Considering the majority of games are played ONLINE anyway, it's not like streaming is even holding back gameplay for the overwhelming majority of games (I say as I'm mid-throes of Splatoon addiction... Every frame is tied to the internet connection anyway.)

Even Nintendo's in on the streaming action now. Granted they're using Stadia's bad business model, but they're Nintendo so nothing matters and market physics don't apply in their dimension. Once Nintendo adopts a technology you know it's no longer a unicorn fantasy but is just old tech.

It's not there yet, and it's not there for all people in all places, but it will be.

But the company charging you to play games you pay full price for isn't the one that's going to be popular...or survive...obviously

@CunningPig Amazon is going to swing big over time. Apple is a potential big player, if they ever choose to act on it. And when they do they'll act like they invented cloud gaming in the unique and totally revolutionary service. Tencent is just inevitable. Sony.....SHOULD have been at the forefront, they planted the first flag, but almost inexplicably they've not only dropped the ball but they rolled it down the hill and it landed in the highway.

@Tharsman came here to say exactly this lol. I also got the stadia controller for free, and I really liked it. Even if I never actually use it, it looks damn good!

@NEStalgia Yeah but with movies and music it's a whole different thing. Movies and music aren't interactble like games are. Whole different mechanics.

Stadia was destined to fail as soon as they shut down their team that was making original games. They hired some great people, and I was genuinely excited for it. A great controller too. Sadly, it’s just another thing google gives up on. At least I’ll be getting refunded for the couple of games I bought!

@SplooshDmg Sony's problem is conflicting leadership without the same vision. The PS4 era had Tretton, House, and Hirai who were all in on the future, and went out of their way to push streaming at a time when the market laughed at them. Same guys that pushed the PSP Go when people thought digital downloads would never happen. They were ahead of the curve to their own detriment. Then came in Ryan and (Ken) Yoshida the conservative finance guys who just doubled down on doing what worked in the 90's and seemed to go out of their way to back out of streaming as an actual line of business. The fact that in the face of Game Pass, Luna, and previously Stadia, they launched a renewed subscription that raised the price of streaming and inexplicably restricted streaming to legacy content only says they suck at streaming because they want to suck at streaming because they want it to be seen as inferior. When they launched PS4 they presented streaming as the future. New leaders, one genie, one bottle.

@Snake_V5 yeah, I get that argument, but I think that argument is starting to become dated. At some point it'll be like saying "3d games are a fad." It's absolutely true, but the line that divides that is becoming narrower and narrower to the point it won't matter. Would Splatoon streamed be great at the speed it moves? Maybe not...otoh, would it matter much since opponents are laggy and teleporting anyway? OTOH, I played something like over 100 hours of Yakuza 0 entirely streamed.....Nothing about it ever felt different than playing the other 20 hours locally on the X.

It's just a matter of waiting for the majority of internet to provide that experience. In places like Japan and Korea that's already a reality in most locations.

It won't replace performance hardware totally, though it may drive the prices up of performance hardware. But I think it'll become the mainstream way to play games by the time the next consoles launch.

@themightyant I felt mixed on the business model. I get that people don't like the idea of paying full price for streaming games, but I don't like the idea of subscription services... I prefer the ability of being able to purchase the games I want, and not being forced to play cherry picked content on a time limit cause you never know when the game will be removed.

@J_Mo_Money I mean, they've deemed it too expensive, multiple times, to keep the bitrate per pixel of videos as high as it was before they bought out YouTube.

Hands down the best Cloud Gaming platform I’ve ever used. My daughter playing Destiny 2 in 4K and HDR on that is mind blowing - when compared to say Sony or Microsoft’s offering.

Granted, we are on 1GB fibre, but even with said fibre, Sony and Microsoft haven’t been close in their offering technology wise.

A lot of people took the piss, and still do, with Stadia, but from my experience, it’s been ahead of its time, but certainly not lacking when compared to the alternatives.

Relying solely on cloud technology right now simply isn’t a good business model, hence Sony and Microsoft aren’t. However, if Xcloud can get anywhere close to the quality given from Stadia I’ll be impressed.

I mean OnLive was good too at times, but I think that’s when I was about one out of five in the UK to be using their servers. 😂

@AverageGamer MS has bailed on things too.

@BleedingDreamer They bail on things after dropping billions of dollars into it and giving it an honest shot. Google doesn't even remotely try. They bailed on Stadia a month after launch.

EDIT: Just look at Amazon and Facebook throwing billions dollars away over the last few years trying to gain a decent gaming base. They didnt just pack up shop and give up.

@BleedingDreamer If Google owned Xbox... It would have been dead with the first generation consoles. They wouldn't have stuck with it through the 360 generation especially after the money they would have lost from the RROD.

I can see how this would be good for Microsoft but ultimately this is bad for consumers. More ways to play is a good thing and drives competition.
Personally I thought stadia was great, it worked really well for me and the controller was rock solid. It got a lot of my lapsed-gamer friends back into gaming thanks to its low cost of entry to gaming. I hope they don't become lapsed again, have had some great gaming sessions with them over the last 3 years.

@Baler ya there's more than a hint of fanboy off some of these comments.

@uptownsoul its rubbish because it worked poorly for you? Not everyone's Internet is the same as yours. If xCloud runs badly for you too is that also rubbish? Because I'm fairly sure you'll find a lot of people on this website alone who think it's great. Myself included. The service runs well, you just might not have the means to access it.

I swear, some guys only come here to bash Microsoft and Xbox... The mods should put an end to this.
On topic: I never tried Stadia but I did try GeForce Now and it worked pretty well, so those who claim that MS is trying to kill off the competition are way off the mark. It's just that they found a winning formula (streaming and installing a game as options). Don't tell me Google can't afford to compete with MS. They just never cared about Stadia enough to let it properly take off.

1000s of people have said it before but they really should have followed the Netflix route. Small monthly fee, get all games included, burn through money building service until they can raise subscriber numbers & profit quite a few years down the line.

Yes, it would be an expensive risk but it was DOA with this model and lack of attention span.

I was hyped originally, I pre-ordered the kit and then cancelled once I heard about how the game purchasing worked. Later they sent me a free controller and Chromecast, I tried Destiny 2 a couple of times to see if it would work. It seemed fine but I've got a XSX and PS5 so it didn't seem to offer anything.

For me, the biggest issue was their business model with different tiers and having to pay to be able to play individual games on top of the Subscription.

With Xbox, you are NOT limited to just Streaming and can still buy games, stream games and play a number of games for a 'small' monthly fee that can be downloaded and played locally. With GPU, I get to play anywhere on any Game Pass compatible hardware with my progression etc carrying over.

Its too much to expect people to completely accept a 'change' from a 'physical' to purely digital, from 'local' play to 'streaming' and 'grow' quickly - especially from a 'new' name in Gaming. MS may offer 'streaming' but its NOT the only option and Game Pass isn't 'just' Streaming...

So customers of Organisation A are celebrating because Organisation B went out of business...

But those customers of A stand to gain nothing financially from this... In fact the lack of competition in theory will mean less innovation and higher prices for them.

Incredible

Google abandoning something? Color me shocked. Stadia can join Ouya now. She is waiting for you my friend

@Spazmonic Intellivision Amico is waiting in the lobby ...

Hopefully now Xcloud will teach the quality and performance of Stadia. Whilst it has been a failure, when I had it it was very impressive graphically and performance wise with little issues. Even now, Xcloud is too inconsistent

Game Pass is going to have a big uprise in subscribers for sure.

@themightyant "If you don't like subscription services there are still business that work, standard console physical or digital purchases without that subscription fee"

That requires me to have a console. I'm trying to move away from owning local hardware that I tend to only use for a month out of the year then put it back in it box.

@AverageGamer I hope Apple stickers with Arcade….it’s not a bad service and is reasonably priced…

Less competition is never a good thing. It mind seem like altruistic decision making but Microsoft know exactly what they are doing buying up studios and starving the competition. It happened with Windows 95 and it is happening with Game Pass.

Make it a dream deal ran at a loss, destroy the competition, hike the price when they’ve all gone bust. That $12 isn’t going to stay that way forever.

Oh no thats 30$ refund in total 🤣