“No, Google isn’t shutting down Stadia (at least for now)” was the title of the last report we published so far about the cloud gaming service. In it, we reiterated a rumor that pointed to an imminent shutdown of the service. A rumor that pointed to the beginning of September (although some implications have pushed that to sometime in August) as when the first steps to shut down the service would be taken.

Google Stadia’s Twitter account was quick to deny the rumor, with a rather resounding write-up saying:

«Stadia is not going to close. Rest assured that we are constantly working to bring more great games to the platform and Stadia Pro. Let us know if you have any further questions.”

So we understood then that Google is still betting on the service, even if, and as you can see, we added “at least for now” to the title of the news and ended it by stating:

«That a simple anonymous testimony has raised so much dust is a significant sign low expectations of ordinary mortals with serviceand perhaps a sign that Google should find a way to somehow bring it back to the fore, though it gets more complicated every passing day.»

Two months have passed since then, and to date we haven’t seen any significant movement from Google to revive Stadia, other than perhaps including its games in search results alongside those of other platforms (Google’s behavior on this point is impeccable). In other words, only inertia seemed to sustain the service. And in the face of the slightest conditions of resistance, the relative motion ceases.

That’s unfortunately what happened with the service, and as confirmed by Google itself, Google Stadia is finally closing its doors, a closure announced today that will be completed on January 18, 2023. The official statement on the matter:

«We also launched the consumer gaming service Stadia a few years ago. And while Stadia’s approach to consumer game streaming was built on a strong technological foundation, it didn’t gain the traction we had hoped for with users, which is why we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service.»

Developing…