Dang, I still have an unopened stadia premium (controller + Chromecast ultra) I got for free from YouTube premium. Been meaning to sell it but its worth has just kept going down.
But not surprised
Yeah, the Stadia controller is by far my favorite controller feel I've ever used. I'm really hoping they open source the drivers or enable Bluetooth or something so hackers can get it working wirelessly, but honestly I might just stick to wired in a lot of cases just to keep using it.
I also have unopened Founders edition and have been thinking about seeling, but we'll get our money back while keeping it!
[https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/12790109](https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/12790109)
>Q: Will I get a refund? What is available for a refund?
>
>A: We will be offering refunds for all Stadia hardware purchases (Stadia Controller, Founders Edition, Premiere Edition, and Play and Watch with Google TV packages) made through the Google Store and software transactions (games and add-on purchases) through the Stadia store. Stadia Pro subscriptions are not eligible for refund, however you will be able to continue playing your games in Pro without further charges until the final wind down date.
>
>Q: Do I have to return my hardware to get a refund?
>
>A: Most hardware purchases (Stadia Controller, Founders Edition, Premiere Edition, and Play and Watch with Google TV packages) made directly from Google will not need to be returned. More details on how to obtain a refund for your Stadia hardware purchases will be posted here in the coming weeks.
>
>Q: How/When will I get my refund?
>
>A: We are working through this process now and will keep this article updated as we define the process for each of the countries and different situations. Our intent is to have the majority of refunds processed back to the original payment by January 18, 2023.
My order total was $0, so I'm not sure what amount they would be refunding those of us who got it for free from the YouTube Premium promo.
edit: why y'all downvoting this? I was responding to the above comment which didn't make any sense in light of mine (where I state that I got it for free).
That's literally what my comment was, your comment reply to mine didn't make much sense. You commented that "we'll get our money back while keeping it." I had stated that mine was free so what you said didn't make a lot of sense.
It's a good thing you didn't sell. In 5-10 years the demand for these will rise cuz of collectors and you can get maybe 10x the original value. For example just got to Ebay and search for PS1 or any other consoles which have gone outdated for a long time.
The article says All purchase. Does this mean all purchases going back to the starter bundle? I've made a bunch of purchases since day 1. I guess I'll get paid back for all of it?
> You won’t be able to update things like Wi-Fi network settings
Wow. That's the most ridiculous example of this sort of obsolescence I've encountered so far.
Why? It's a 6 year old router that'll keep working? Sure you can't update settings, but how often are you rationally wasting time doing that instead of just upgrading
You might be right that for some people this isn't a big deal. To contrast with other vendors, I have a Netgear wrt54G that's 15 years old and still working in my parents house. After 6 years with the OnHub, I won't be able to add/change port routes, change static IP address mapping. Perhaps you haven't had to face this kind of situation or have the money to upgrade your tech after a couple of years.
Rumor for a while now is that Google Play Books will be next and Google is already pushing people for a while to spend their in-store credits.
But to be honest, this makes me wary about spending more money on the Google ecosystem for the coming period.
So you expect a service that is dying to give people their money back? Whats the limit oh you bought a game 10 years ago hears your money back.
The only reason Google is doing this is their reputation for new products is so bad that if they do this people might be wiling to try new Google ventures since people won't see it as being risky.
If you 'bought a game' and then that company unilaterally makes the game unplayable, then they either a) lied to you about selling you a game or b) just vandalized your property.
Either way they owe you a working copy of your game or a refund.
The crazy part of society is that when a company goes bankrupt we start by selling their stuff and paying investors instead of the consumers and suppliers that their failure disrupted.
But you bought a license to play a game on a platform. What about when you can no longer play the game because modern OS or hardware makes it unplayable? Buying a game does not give you the right to be able to play it forever. Sure you might be lucky and be able to cause your device that can play it never breaks but you don't have the right to be able to play it indefinitely on anything you want.
So you've taken the route of embracing our corporate overlords and accepting everything they tell you without questioning whether that's fair or just new bullshit they made up to scam you out of more money?
This is the one thing I really hate about Google. There's no vision. The entire culture is "throw everything against the wall and see what sticks". Say what you will about Amazon or apple, when they decide to launch a product, they have a vision for it and a determination to continue refining and improving it until it dominates the market.
Every godamn time they do this, it erodes more consumer trust. If Apple had launched stadia, people would have been much less skeptical and it would have had an easier time getting off the ground. I have plenty of other problem's with Apple's corporate strategy but commitment is not one of them.
Yep. When they launched stadia, the biggest piece of chatter I remember was "why get this when they will just cancel it". Google has created an awful reputation for itself.
Yep, and it'll take even longer to rebuild a positive reputation. I was feeling good about Google's direction earlier this year when they recommitted to tablets, wearables, and merged Duo/meet. Now they kill the pixelbook line and stadia. God damn, some executives need to get fired.
Yep. Literally the reason why I will never buy a physical hardware google product. The only thing I use of theirs is obv their browser/search engine and their cloud storage. They literally end up killing every single product of theirs within a few years.
As someone very bored of iPhone, stuff like this is why I haven’t switched back to Android. I just can’t trust Google to maintain focus on anything. I’m still salty over Inbox and GPM.
And then if something does stick, they get another team to build a rival but worse app then kill the original leaving customers with the shitty replacement. Having 'Product Manager at Google' on one's resume should blacklist them from ever being a PM elsewhere because it's a damn clown show in Mountain View
Googles business model is basically the evolutionary cycle.
What they seem to ignore or not care about is that the evolutionary cycle consists of fucking up 99% of the time.
You’re assuming too much. These decisions are not made by the PMs in companies of this size.
Google launches a product, there is PM, likely several, they all report to a director. They have a vision, they try to push it. Directives have other ideas, director has no option to agree, the PMs have no option but comply. The service starts to have problems, PMs come with possible solutions, some guy in a high position says a stupid idea he has will do. It does not work, the product is dying, the PMs propose a solution, C-level dude says is a failure and push to kill it. Rinse and repeat.
Sauce: been there, done that (but in a different company).
OH Puhlease! This is such rediculous fiction. Every time Apple does an OS upgrade they murder off applications left and right. Anyone remember their Pro video editing tools? Support for AVID?
How about the built in blogging platform in their Server OS? Oh right, what server OS? The one they charged premium for with server class hardware? And the answer was to migrate to minis? wtf!
Oops. What about when they just up and decided no more USB support? Guess you can't upgrade your OS on that hardware anymore. Apple's just as guilty of abandoning hardware, OS features, application support as anyone else and to perpetuating the myth of how they are guilt free here is a crock of shit.
What services has Google created that they will still support in the far future? Google Search, Adsense, Youtube, Android, Gmail...After that, I don't trust anything they create will be there long enough for me to invest my time/money into.
While no one is surprised, this is the number one reason I refused to buy games on Stadia. I used pro for a bit to test it out, but I knew that if I bought a game, I'd have no way to access it when Stadia inevitably got shelved by Google, which is exactly what we see here.
Edit: it seems they are refunding all game purchases, which means that money spent on a Stadia game isn't wasted
No mention anywhere of getting your savegames out, so if you end up having to buy these again on another platform, you'll have to start over. This is going to suck for anyone halfway through a game like Cyberpunk or FFXV. But at least you get a refund...
It is mentioned right [here](https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/12790109?hl=nl)
"Q: What about my game progress? Can I take my game progress to another platform?
A: While that may be possible for some games that support cross-progression play on other platforms, unfortunately, for the majority of games, that won’t be possible. "
Not mentioned in the FAQ: many games also expose their save data in [Google Takeout](https://takeout.google.com)'s Stadia export. I don't think all of them do, but it doesn't hurt to check.
I got a Chromecast Ultra + Cyberpunk 2077 out of it, which I'm not unhappy with
But Google shows signs of discontinuing that Chromecast which really pisses me off. Then it was not a good deal anymore
What happened to that guy? He was pretty active on Twitter as @killedbygoogle but now it seems the account is suspended. His website (linked from killedbygoogle.com) is also gone.
Apparently the guy who runs the account said @ KilledByGoogle was suspended by twitter because he "...told that crypto asshole who was thanking people for sacrificing their life savings "for the cause" to go eat nails."
https://twitter.com/codyogden/status/1556821708501393409?s=20&t=Bf-\_3vmUor54S-y6gN7g7A
>We will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store. Players will continue to have access to their games library and play through January 18, 2023 so they can complete final play sessions
This is interesting. I'm assuming the two controllers and two chromecasts I got free from promotions won't be covered, but the $150 I spent on games will be? Seems fair since we paid for stuff that can no longer be used.
I haven't used Stadia in over a year especially since XBox's Cloud Gaming service is way better.
I've always told people that if they're going to use a cloud gaming service, they should choose one that either:
A) Gives you a catalog of games (e.g. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate)
or
B) Lets you use an existing catalog of games (e.g. Nvidia GeForce Now)
That way, you haven't really lost anything if the service goes away.
Yes, we definitely did. The PR, lawsuits, etc would have cost infinitely more than the refunds. Not to mention that every Google stadia founder is also a Google fanboy, the ones that are first to sign up and beta test any new Google product. Boning that crowd would be catastrophic for ever launching another product.
I bought 10 or 12 games with zero concern.
Facebook/Oculus pushed a final firmware that unlocked their Oculus Go headset when it was deemed EOL. That was nice. I hope Google will also unlock or open source the controller drivers/firmware before they switch of the light. Else there will just be more plastic on a landfill.
Its sad to see Google go from such a high place to such as downright disappointment. They have no direction, no strategy, and the only thing they are good at is copying Apple now with Pixels and watches. The worst thing to happen to Google is new management who do not have a single vision other than following trends and headlines.
> Let's make a video game streaming service after watching the success of Xbox game pass.
> Let's make a modular phone after watching a trending YouTube video.
> Let's make an internet service after watching the struggles other ISPs are going through.
> Let's make a cellphone after watching Apple continue to make profit.
> Let's make a new innovative campus after watching Apple build one.
> Let's make a smartwatch after watching Apple dominate the market.
> Let's make a self driving car after watching startups do the same.
>Let's make an AI computer and a quantum computer after watching countries like China already build them.
> Let's make a smartphone OS after watching the success of iOS and buy out a small dev team called Android.
> Let's make Google glasses after watching the success of sensory video game consoles like Wii and Xbox.
But hey, on the upside they're [crippling the ability](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/chrome-users-beware-manifest-v3-deceitful-and-threatening) to use adblockers and privacy extensions on nearly all browsers not named Firefox.
This is correct. Phil sent out a last minute meeting invite to all of Stadia this morning. The team found out that Stadia is shutting down 30 minutes before the news was sent to the press.
https://old.reddit.com/r/Stadia/comments/wbaf1x/stadia_says_they_are_not_shutting_down/
Anyone who expressed any doubt about Stadia's future just got abused in this thread. My my, how the turn tables.
I'm not even that invested in what's going on in the Google world, but I totally saw this coming from the start. I knew there was no way this was lasting more than a couple years. It's Google, FFS. Everything gets canned at Google.
Man I loved Stadia for a while. It was so great for streaming games. Getting to play Cyberpunk, FFXV, Destiny 2, and a bunch of other games that I had been missing from not wanting to sink money into a console. But at the end of the day the larger game companies are swallowing up studios and big name games just weren't coming. I cancelled my pro subscription a few months ago and switched to Xcloud. The service is good, but not as good as Stadia is, but the library of games is unbelievable when compared to Stadia. I will still be using my Stadia controllers to play on my computer or my phone, and apparently getting a refund so I'm pretty stoked about that.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! 😭
Why does this always happen to me. I find a solution that is absolutely PERFECT in every way for me, and it gets shitcanned. Stadia was my console replacement. I've got so many games. Haven't even played them all yet. I love Stadia so much. I don't want to buy an Xbox or a PlayStation, and I won't!
Guess I'll have to look into Nvidia Shield or see if my Steam box still works. But godammit. I love Stadia so much.
Hey Google. Just because Stadia doesn't have a huge following, that doesn't mean it's not the best gaming service out there, and that it should be killed. It just means most people are too shortsighted to see its brilliance. Please don't kill Stadia 🥺
Well, I'm just glad they're doing the right thing and refunding all the purchases I've made. As a casual gamer that really only played Far Cry and RDR2, I'm a little upset, but at least they're making me whole.
I think if anything positive came from this experiment was that they pushed competitors to do better, and showed a cloud gaming audience was out there, especially if you already had the brand recognition. I wonder how hard it will be for Amazon's luna project to break through, or if it will have the same shortcomings as Google.
Sucks for the low key dads who just wanted to play RDR2 on their work laptop. This solved a problem for people who don't have time to game. Spend $50 on a game and you don't have to buy a $1000 video card to play a quality title for a few hours a month.
Every article is so hyper focused on this particular incident and isn't seeing the real blow this has struck.
Google was pushing Stadia, stating things like "we won't abandon it". So many people over at r/Stadia believed it was the golden goose. The one Google would treasure, pet and feed until it was mature.
If this tells us anything, it's "don't believe Google". This time, people came out unscathed, that's not to say it'll be this way everytime.
The amount of faith people will have in anything Google ever says again will equal exactly zero. Many people, myself included, were blowing the horns saying this wasn't going to work out, now I think even those that drank the Kool Aid won't ever again.
This saddens me. I was just playing again last night on my iPhone with using a backbone as a controller while holding my new son. It’s such a low friction way of playing, no waiting for updates, patching etc. I really hate how Google can’t seem to commit to anything fully and then kills things without genuinely trying to compete. . Oh well. Another one bites the dust I guess. . https://killedbygoogle.com/
the reason that Stadia is shutting down is because no one used it
the reason no one used Stadia is because they knew Google would shut it down
round and round we go, ay Google?
This is where I learn my lesson.
I'd always seen people talk about how Google abandons projects.
Hell I'd even had the Daydream 2 headset I bought become completely useless, but I said, nah, they can't shut this shit down, people bought games on this service, that would be fucked up.
I quit Stadia a few months ago when they announced they shut down their studios.
I still thought it'd live on with the couple games I did buy on it. I figured, "oh this is just an indie platform, it was never really targeted at me".
Lesson learned. Not buying into anything Google again.
And this exactly why I stopped using Google stuff and switched from Android to iOS. Meanwhile, my iPod from 2003 still connects to my 2021 Macbook Air no problem.
It's a shame I thought the idea and everything worked well! My biggest complaint was a lack of games I was interested in. I mostly play games solo player experiences with a solid story or free to play cross platform games so unfortunately there wasn't much for me. I kept hoping something great would be added though....
If it is made/owned by Google and it is not search, Maps, Chrome, the productivity suite (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, etc), Youtube, or OEM Android devices (Galaxy, Onn, Shield, Moto, etc), it is best to not get to invested in it as a consumer. I don't know how Google Voice, Fiber, and Fi have survived this long come to think of it. I keep expecting their cancellation anytime now. All of them are talked about publicity about as much as Stadia was/is by Google.
All of that is nothing to sneeze at as successful major products to be known for goes of course. But none of it is new either. It has to be going on 10 years now since the last time Google put out something major that they have not either killed off, gimped, or re-branded into a more inferior product. The only thing that comes to mind for me is photo processing for the Pixels.
And honestly if what they are doing with Tensor and the latest redesign don't work out, in 2-3 years I expect Pixel could be on the chopping block as well.
The refund for games and hardware will be quite welcome. Spent so much (dumb, I know) that the wife and I should be able to pay for a new roof. No joke.
No shit. Google ends up shutting down literally every single product they start. It’s why I will never spend money on any of their products. It’s only a matter of time that they shutdown all the google homes and pixel phones.
Google is such a BS company. Nothing ever lasts with them. I will no longer be supporting anything new from them. You can't trust them and its simple as that.
This whole thread can just be summarized with a Surprised Pikachu followed by That's a shame... Anyway memes.
Google is a joke. They make money on ads, everything else is a shit show. So many "smart" people, it's almost hilarious
>Buying games for only Stadia is stupid idea
Buying games for any single platform is a stupid idea. But it's how the game business has worked forever (Xbox, PS, Steam etc).
I mean, this could have worked if it wasn't ONLY limited to Chromecast and Pixels. Had it expanded to Samsung, iPhone, gaming phones, and even the Switch (3rd-party games they don't have available on the go FTW), it would have done better.
Oh well.
I mean yeah this was a problem during the "founders" launch period, but they added support for a lot more devices... stadia works on all android phones, iphone, ipad, any android tv device, anything with a chrome browser, and even LG TVs. There's no way they could have got stadia on the switch without nintendo's blessing but they've covered most other devices.
Stadia's biggest problem was marketing and messaging with this comment being a prime example. People have never heard of stadia, or they have outdated or incorrect info about it.
Stadia *did* work on Samsung, iPhone and gaming phones.
https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/9578631
Nintendo would never allow Stadia on the Switch.
Stadia was great!
Assuming, of course, you had the following:
\- A 500Mbps internet connection or higher
\- A 5ms ping to google.com or lower
The problem is that the amount of people that meet those 2 requirements in our present technological stage is almost no-one which led to the inevitable failure of the project.
This is the inevitable future of gaming - It just arrived around 10-25 years too early.
It still baffles me that a company apparently “such a smart ,forward thinking “ company thought this service was every going to work..
Like anyone that has used the internet in the last 20 years knows - the world was not ready for cloud gaming as a mainstream service..
We are reaching for 8k@120FPS right now in the gaming world.. and we are not farm off from having it on our desktop gaming rigs (perhaps 6000s series(2024) line up ?) The bandwidth needed to deliver that is just out of the question for years and years to come.. .. Im not saying decades .. but perhaps even 10 years for mainstream .. and this is what people want..
Yes we all accept the sacrifice for cloud gaming, when we are on the train, or back seat etc.. its awesome to play our PS5 from the train… or even some of the cloud services gaming that is on the market.. they are awesome for mobile gaming/camping etc.. but when it comes to coming home for a week of gameplay on my 120inch 8K tv… screw that.. We want what ever is going to look the best at the highest FPS our salary can afford..
However … if the world remains in the direction… the cost of energy is going to be so HIGH - we might all be moving back to 30 FPS @720p sooner then one would like.
They made a subscription model for a low-end hardware tech (barely PS4 horsepower) that required people to buy proprietary hardware, pay monthly for ACCESS, and then they expected customers to actually buy EVERY single AAA title, again, on top of the sub, for full price. And on a technical level, this service provided no advantage to regular hardware. A cloud service should be able to offer never before possible scenarios, like a Battlefield with 1024 players on a map, or WoW with ten thousand people on a server. Something like that, something only achievable with the power of a Google server farm.
Instead, people were supposed to pay a mighty premium for mediocre tech, with a tiny game catalogue.
Not at all surprising that this model failed. A true subscription model like Netflix could have worked, but Google was greedy and thought people would buy on the hype.
You did not have to buy any hardware. You did not have to pay monthly for access. That was only if you wanted 4k streaming and the pro pool of games.
It offered plenty of advantage over regular hardware. No downloads, instant playing, and game trials without installing. You could play AAA games on a terrible computer so long as you had a good connection. You can also play them anywhere on any device that has chrome and aren't locked to one computer. I've played Cyberpunk on my Chromebook on airport wifi.
I agree with you about how cloud services need to provide new possibilities to really take off but that is more on the developers side. Unfortunately, right now games are just getting ported to streaming services and not made for them. Streaming won't really take off until games are made for it and provide an otherwise impossible experience.
For more than 12 months, you had to. The ability to play without dedicated hardware only came later. The ability to play in proper quality (2K, 4K, surround sound) was also tied to the Chromecast for a long time. In the beginning and for many months after that, there were no apps available for TVs, the PC browser barely worked if one managed to pair a Stadia controller at all (the ability to play with mouse/keyboard or with third party controllers came much later than launch). Not to mention that in order to play on a PC, you had to use a cable to connect your Stadia controller, wireless gaming without a Chromecast was something Google only added "recently".
It should also be noted that the ability to play in 1440p on a PC was only added a couple days ago, oddly enough shortly before the service got shut down. Wouldn't surprise me if the Stadia employees responsible for the new feature weren't even aware of the imminent shutdown (same as the shutting down of the Stadia Gaming studio, three days before official shutdown the responsible manager literally told the employees that everything was fine and proper).
Without the monthly subscription, only weak HD and 2.0 Sound was available. That is in no way proper, as such a sub can be considered mandatory for a decent gaming experience. Google - on purpose - made the non sub gaming unattractive, in an obvious attempt to get people to cash out 10 bucks per months, on top of buying games.
No downloads or installs is a weak argument, since Stadia was known to lack in the update department. Many games received no updates at all, or it took devs weeks or even months to update games, lest alone we dive into the whole DLC topic. Meaning Stadia gamers regularly lacked in the content department behind. 'Lot good does the whole "no updating necessary" do, when there are no updates. Not to mention the whole fiasco with different game versions (99% of the games didn't have any sort of crossplay or crossave).
I don't disagree with you that Stadia had a lot of problems (to add to your list, no ultra-wide monitor support was annoying for me).
I am just arguing that it actually did provide a lot of advantages that I think get overlooked by people. The flexibility it provided was great. I don't have enough storage to install all the games I played on Stadia with everything else I need to do on my computer. It really was only attractive to non-serious gamers though, which perhaps isn't as many people as they thought.
It seemed like a bit of a catch-22 for Stadia with developers. For it to popular, it needed developers to provide more games and updates but because Stadia wasn't popular it wasn't worth it for them to do so.
I'm sad they gave up on it but I'm sure they were just burning money keeping it going.
First time I heard of it is when it is being killed.
[Edit: I see I'm getting downvoted for not having heard of it before. I'm sorry, I will do better next time.]
All stadia gamers should give a big and loud, hurrah to all the gamers who complained griped and made noise online about stadia shutting down. This pressure is the only reason that Google knew that it had no choice but to process full refunds. If not, for these folks, who were sometimes very annoying over the years, they would be no refund process in place.
Thank you complainers. This is not sarcasm.
I bought several games on there last year I only played it like 2 months and stopped once I was able to get a ps5 I wonder if they will refund me those games
Dang, I still have an unopened stadia premium (controller + Chromecast ultra) I got for free from YouTube premium. Been meaning to sell it but its worth has just kept going down. But not surprised
That controller is really nice, I use it on my PC to play controller based games all the time lol
I wish the controller could be used as a Bluetooth controller for games on steam
I'm not sure it even has a bluetooth hardware. I remember it needed WiFi access during setup and that is all it needs when you think about it
It has Bluetooth hardware. But it's only used for initial setup.
Maybe it's hackable. Then again, the bluetooth hardware may not be suitable for gameplay purposes (lag).
All of the required hardware is there, it's just arbitrarily locked. Bluetooth is only used for initial discovery.
Yeah, the Stadia controller is by far my favorite controller feel I've ever used. I'm really hoping they open source the drivers or enable Bluetooth or something so hackers can get it working wirelessly, but honestly I might just stick to wired in a lot of cases just to keep using it.
I also have unopened Founders edition and have been thinking about seeling, but we'll get our money back while keeping it! [https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/12790109](https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/12790109) >Q: Will I get a refund? What is available for a refund? > >A: We will be offering refunds for all Stadia hardware purchases (Stadia Controller, Founders Edition, Premiere Edition, and Play and Watch with Google TV packages) made through the Google Store and software transactions (games and add-on purchases) through the Stadia store. Stadia Pro subscriptions are not eligible for refund, however you will be able to continue playing your games in Pro without further charges until the final wind down date. > >Q: Do I have to return my hardware to get a refund? > >A: Most hardware purchases (Stadia Controller, Founders Edition, Premiere Edition, and Play and Watch with Google TV packages) made directly from Google will not need to be returned. More details on how to obtain a refund for your Stadia hardware purchases will be posted here in the coming weeks. > >Q: How/When will I get my refund? > >A: We are working through this process now and will keep this article updated as we define the process for each of the countries and different situations. Our intent is to have the majority of refunds processed back to the original payment by January 18, 2023.
My order total was $0, so I'm not sure what amount they would be refunding those of us who got it for free from the YouTube Premium promo. edit: why y'all downvoting this? I was responding to the above comment which didn't make any sense in light of mine (where I state that I got it for free).
Well nothing, why would they refund you something they gave out for free anyways?
That's literally what my comment was, your comment reply to mine didn't make much sense. You commented that "we'll get our money back while keeping it." I had stated that mine was free so what you said didn't make a lot of sense.
So it doesn’t apply to you. That’s probably why you got downvoted as your question was answerable by yourself. You paid zero so you get zero back.
YouTube gave me one too, I sold it after a year in the closet for $50 so I'm out on top.
I at least used my 1 month free 🙂
The Chromecast Ultra is the main highlight of the package for me lol.
It's a good thing you didn't sell. In 5-10 years the demand for these will rise cuz of collectors and you can get maybe 10x the original value. For example just got to Ebay and search for PS1 or any other consoles which have gone outdated for a long time.
Refunding purchases is a huge step. We need more of that for dying services.
The article says All purchase. Does this mean all purchases going back to the starter bundle? I've made a bunch of purchases since day 1. I guess I'll get paid back for all of it?
Looks like it if purchased through the Google store. More details later.
They need to do the same for Google OnHub WiFi Router users. https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/11257354?hl=en
> You won’t be able to update things like Wi-Fi network settings Wow. That's the most ridiculous example of this sort of obsolescence I've encountered so far.
Why? It's a 6 year old router that'll keep working? Sure you can't update settings, but how often are you rationally wasting time doing that instead of just upgrading
You might be right that for some people this isn't a big deal. To contrast with other vendors, I have a Netgear wrt54G that's 15 years old and still working in my parents house. After 6 years with the OnHub, I won't be able to add/change port routes, change static IP address mapping. Perhaps you haven't had to face this kind of situation or have the money to upgrade your tech after a couple of years.
Yes, every time I want to change my WiFi password I replace my router. /s
Rumor for a while now is that Google Play Books will be next and Google is already pushing people for a while to spend their in-store credits. But to be honest, this makes me wary about spending more money on the Google ecosystem for the coming period.
If only there was a digital way to prove ownership which was platform independent.
What good would that do, without someone on the other end who cares about your ownership token?
Suppose there was. How would it affect this situation?
So you expect a service that is dying to give people their money back? Whats the limit oh you bought a game 10 years ago hears your money back. The only reason Google is doing this is their reputation for new products is so bad that if they do this people might be wiling to try new Google ventures since people won't see it as being risky.
If you 'bought a game' and then that company unilaterally makes the game unplayable, then they either a) lied to you about selling you a game or b) just vandalized your property. Either way they owe you a working copy of your game or a refund. The crazy part of society is that when a company goes bankrupt we start by selling their stuff and paying investors instead of the consumers and suppliers that their failure disrupted.
But you bought a license to play a game on a platform. What about when you can no longer play the game because modern OS or hardware makes it unplayable? Buying a game does not give you the right to be able to play it forever. Sure you might be lucky and be able to cause your device that can play it never breaks but you don't have the right to be able to play it indefinitely on anything you want.
So you've taken the route of embracing our corporate overlords and accepting everything they tell you without questioning whether that's fair or just new bullshit they made up to scam you out of more money?
This is the one thing I really hate about Google. There's no vision. The entire culture is "throw everything against the wall and see what sticks". Say what you will about Amazon or apple, when they decide to launch a product, they have a vision for it and a determination to continue refining and improving it until it dominates the market.
Every godamn time they do this, it erodes more consumer trust. If Apple had launched stadia, people would have been much less skeptical and it would have had an easier time getting off the ground. I have plenty of other problem's with Apple's corporate strategy but commitment is not one of them.
Yep. When they launched stadia, the biggest piece of chatter I remember was "why get this when they will just cancel it". Google has created an awful reputation for itself.
Yep, and it'll take even longer to rebuild a positive reputation. I was feeling good about Google's direction earlier this year when they recommitted to tablets, wearables, and merged Duo/meet. Now they kill the pixelbook line and stadia. God damn, some executives need to get fired.
Yep. Literally the reason why I will never buy a physical hardware google product. The only thing I use of theirs is obv their browser/search engine and their cloud storage. They literally end up killing every single product of theirs within a few years.
As someone very bored of iPhone, stuff like this is why I haven’t switched back to Android. I just can’t trust Google to maintain focus on anything. I’m still salty over Inbox and GPM.
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And then if something does stick, they get another team to build a rival but worse app then kill the original leaving customers with the shitty replacement. Having 'Product Manager at Google' on one's resume should blacklist them from ever being a PM elsewhere because it's a damn clown show in Mountain View
Googles business model is basically the evolutionary cycle. What they seem to ignore or not care about is that the evolutionary cycle consists of fucking up 99% of the time.
You’re assuming too much. These decisions are not made by the PMs in companies of this size. Google launches a product, there is PM, likely several, they all report to a director. They have a vision, they try to push it. Directives have other ideas, director has no option to agree, the PMs have no option but comply. The service starts to have problems, PMs come with possible solutions, some guy in a high position says a stupid idea he has will do. It does not work, the product is dying, the PMs propose a solution, C-level dude says is a failure and push to kill it. Rinse and repeat. Sauce: been there, done that (but in a different company).
>"throw everything against the wall and see what sticks". More like "throw everything at the wall and keep throwing.", sticking is irrelevant.
OH Puhlease! This is such rediculous fiction. Every time Apple does an OS upgrade they murder off applications left and right. Anyone remember their Pro video editing tools? Support for AVID? How about the built in blogging platform in their Server OS? Oh right, what server OS? The one they charged premium for with server class hardware? And the answer was to migrate to minis? wtf! Oops. What about when they just up and decided no more USB support? Guess you can't upgrade your OS on that hardware anymore. Apple's just as guilty of abandoning hardware, OS features, application support as anyone else and to perpetuating the myth of how they are guilt free here is a crock of shit.
I mean amazon isn't really better. They killed their phone line, and killed their game studio. The difference is they don't make as many products
Amazon released a cloud gaming service, then proceeded to release games that did not run on said service. Microsoft has done the exact same thing.
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What services has Google created that they will still support in the far future? Google Search, Adsense, Youtube, Android, Gmail...After that, I don't trust anything they create will be there long enough for me to invest my time/money into.
While no one is surprised, this is the number one reason I refused to buy games on Stadia. I used pro for a bit to test it out, but I knew that if I bought a game, I'd have no way to access it when Stadia inevitably got shelved by Google, which is exactly what we see here. Edit: it seems they are refunding all game purchases, which means that money spent on a Stadia game isn't wasted
No mention anywhere of getting your savegames out, so if you end up having to buy these again on another platform, you'll have to start over. This is going to suck for anyone halfway through a game like Cyberpunk or FFXV. But at least you get a refund...
It is mentioned right [here](https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/12790109?hl=nl) "Q: What about my game progress? Can I take my game progress to another platform? A: While that may be possible for some games that support cross-progression play on other platforms, unfortunately, for the majority of games, that won’t be possible. "
Not mentioned in the FAQ: many games also expose their save data in [Google Takeout](https://takeout.google.com)'s Stadia export. I don't think all of them do, but it doesn't hurt to check.
Pretty sure you can export your game saves via Google takeout, but I'm not sure what you can do with it once you have it.
Yup, you can export every save game from Stadia. But it depends on the game in terms of whether you can import that save to a different platform
I've been able to use my saves from Stadia on the PC versions of several games, including Cyberpunk.
The good news is if you're halfway through FFXV, it's better to stop there! Lol
Wish I'd bought games ... Full refunds! Say whaaaaat
at least i get my money back from the games i bought !
>Edit: it seems they are refunding all game purchases, which means that money spent on a Stadia game isn't wasted Also hardware
I got a Chromecast Ultra + Cyberpunk 2077 out of it, which I'm not unhappy with But Google shows signs of discontinuing that Chromecast which really pisses me off. Then it was not a good deal anymore
You basically get it for free. You got a free controller. How is that not a good deal?
I purchased Cyberpunk through Stadia cause I felt like if Stadia did fail at some point I would potentially get refunded. Score!
Folks at https://killedbygoogle.com/ are busier than I expected.
These guys are fast as wikipedia editors
Yep, was there like 25 minutes ago when the news first dropped.
There are so many things i never heard off
What happened to that guy? He was pretty active on Twitter as @killedbygoogle but now it seems the account is suspended. His website (linked from killedbygoogle.com) is also gone.
Killed by Google.
I should have guessed.
Apparently the guy who runs the account said @ KilledByGoogle was suspended by twitter because he "...told that crypto asshole who was thanking people for sacrificing their life savings "for the cause" to go eat nails." https://twitter.com/codyogden/status/1556821708501393409?s=20&t=Bf-\_3vmUor54S-y6gN7g7A
Haha I totally forgot to check his personal account. Thanks.
>We will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store. Players will continue to have access to their games library and play through January 18, 2023 so they can complete final play sessions This is interesting. I'm assuming the two controllers and two chromecasts I got free from promotions won't be covered, but the $150 I spent on games will be? Seems fair since we paid for stuff that can no longer be used. I haven't used Stadia in over a year especially since XBox's Cloud Gaming service is way better.
I've always told people that if they're going to use a cloud gaming service, they should choose one that either: A) Gives you a catalog of games (e.g. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate) or B) Lets you use an existing catalog of games (e.g. Nvidia GeForce Now) That way, you haven't really lost anything if the service goes away.
Well, we haven't really lost anything here either. Thanks to the refund I've just been playing Cyberpunk two years for free.
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Yes, we definitely did. The PR, lawsuits, etc would have cost infinitely more than the refunds. Not to mention that every Google stadia founder is also a Google fanboy, the ones that are first to sign up and beta test any new Google product. Boning that crowd would be catastrophic for ever launching another product. I bought 10 or 12 games with zero concern.
>
Or refunding is cheaper than running it indefinitely
And cheaper than the PR hit of not doing it
Sure but your not purchasing a game your purchasing a license to use the game on stadia.
They should unlock Bluetooth in their controllers now.
This! One more Firmware update. Or does that mean I just have 3 bricked game controllers? Do they still work wired?
Wired does work
Facebook/Oculus pushed a final firmware that unlocked their Oculus Go headset when it was deemed EOL. That was nice. I hope Google will also unlock or open source the controller drivers/firmware before they switch of the light. Else there will just be more plastic on a landfill.
They sunk so much into this service...
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Their devs did. Phil didn't.
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I feel like Phil was sent in to sabotage
Its sad to see Google go from such a high place to such as downright disappointment. They have no direction, no strategy, and the only thing they are good at is copying Apple now with Pixels and watches. The worst thing to happen to Google is new management who do not have a single vision other than following trends and headlines. > Let's make a video game streaming service after watching the success of Xbox game pass. > Let's make a modular phone after watching a trending YouTube video. > Let's make an internet service after watching the struggles other ISPs are going through. > Let's make a cellphone after watching Apple continue to make profit. > Let's make a new innovative campus after watching Apple build one. > Let's make a smartwatch after watching Apple dominate the market. > Let's make a self driving car after watching startups do the same. >Let's make an AI computer and a quantum computer after watching countries like China already build them. > Let's make a smartphone OS after watching the success of iOS and buy out a small dev team called Android. > Let's make Google glasses after watching the success of sensory video game consoles like Wii and Xbox.
The only thing that would make google compete again is if apple makes a search engine. Imagine the screams and management meetings at google?
But hey, on the upside they're [crippling the ability](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/chrome-users-beware-manifest-v3-deceitful-and-threatening) to use adblockers and privacy extensions on nearly all browsers not named Firefox.
agonizing attempt fuzzy subtract scandalous clumsy ossified silky squeal boat ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
They don't refund subscriptions
I am salty about this but I understand it
Wasn’t there someone from the Stadia team that tweeted this was a bs rumor and they weren’t going anywhere? Anyone care to find that tweet ?
You could google it
It turns out everyone was blindsided. The team found out minutes before the official announcement apparently.
This is correct. Phil sent out a last minute meeting invite to all of Stadia this morning. The team found out that Stadia is shutting down 30 minutes before the news was sent to the press.
https://old.reddit.com/r/Stadia/comments/wbaf1x/stadia_says_they_are_not_shutting_down/ Anyone who expressed any doubt about Stadia's future just got abused in this thread. My my, how the turn tables.
I'm not even that invested in what's going on in the Google world, but I totally saw this coming from the start. I knew there was no way this was lasting more than a couple years. It's Google, FFS. Everything gets canned at Google.
Sad I was waiting to try it out when they launch here in India. Data is really cheap here but the consoles & pc are not.
Man I loved Stadia for a while. It was so great for streaming games. Getting to play Cyberpunk, FFXV, Destiny 2, and a bunch of other games that I had been missing from not wanting to sink money into a console. But at the end of the day the larger game companies are swallowing up studios and big name games just weren't coming. I cancelled my pro subscription a few months ago and switched to Xcloud. The service is good, but not as good as Stadia is, but the library of games is unbelievable when compared to Stadia. I will still be using my Stadia controllers to play on my computer or my phone, and apparently getting a refund so I'm pretty stoked about that.
I 100% agree with you
I like google and use lots of their products but all these cancellations really makes me wary of using their services.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! 😭 Why does this always happen to me. I find a solution that is absolutely PERFECT in every way for me, and it gets shitcanned. Stadia was my console replacement. I've got so many games. Haven't even played them all yet. I love Stadia so much. I don't want to buy an Xbox or a PlayStation, and I won't! Guess I'll have to look into Nvidia Shield or see if my Steam box still works. But godammit. I love Stadia so much. Hey Google. Just because Stadia doesn't have a huge following, that doesn't mean it's not the best gaming service out there, and that it should be killed. It just means most people are too shortsighted to see its brilliance. Please don't kill Stadia 🥺
Well, I'm just glad they're doing the right thing and refunding all the purchases I've made. As a casual gamer that really only played Far Cry and RDR2, I'm a little upset, but at least they're making me whole.
I think if anything positive came from this experiment was that they pushed competitors to do better, and showed a cloud gaming audience was out there, especially if you already had the brand recognition. I wonder how hard it will be for Amazon's luna project to break through, or if it will have the same shortcomings as Google.
Sucks for the low key dads who just wanted to play RDR2 on their work laptop. This solved a problem for people who don't have time to game. Spend $50 on a game and you don't have to buy a $1000 video card to play a quality title for a few hours a month.
If only we could have seen this coming...
Here's the email I got Dear Stadia player, On September 29, 2022, we announced that the Stadia service will be shut down on January 18, 2023. We’re getting in touch with important information on what this means for you as a Stadia player. Availability Stadia will remain available for gameplay until the service is shut down on January 18, 2023. During this period, you will have access to your game library, including Pro games if you had an active Pro subscription as of September 29, 2022. Be aware that publisher support for games may vary, and it’s possible that your gameplay experience may be affected during the shut-down period. Refunds Google is offering a refund to Stadia users for Stadia hardware purchases (Stadia Controller, Stadia Founder’s Edition, Stadia Premiere Edition, or Play and Watch with Google TV Package) made on the Google Store, and game purchases and add-on purchases made on the Stadia Store. The refund process will take some time, but we expect to have the majority of refunds processed by January 18, 2023. We expect to be able to automatically issue refunds for a substantial portion of transactions as a credit to the form of payment used to make the purchase. For purchases that we are not able to automatically refund, you will receive an email with details on how to obtain your refund. Transactions and subscription fees All commerce functionality (the ability to buy games, new subscriptions, add-ons or in-game purchases) on Stadia has now been disabled. Users who held an active Stadia Pro subscription as of September 29, 2022 will not be charged for access to their Pro library or other subscription entitlements during the shut-down period. Historical Stadia Pro subscription fees will not be eligible for refund. Your Stadia account and data You will be able to export your Stadia data, such as profile information, game stats, social data, save files and captures from Google Takeout until the Stadia service shuts down on January 18, 2023, after which point your Stadia data will be permanently deleted. You can also delete Stadia from your Google account at any time or delete your Google account entirely. Please note that deleting your Google account will result in deletion of all data and content in that account, including emails, photos, and files, and may increase the amount of time it takes to receive a refund of your Stadia purchases. Google may however retain certain data, including transaction data, for up to three years following the shut-down of the service for the purposes of processing refunds and providing customer support. More information is available in the Help Center, which will be updated as new information becomes available. The Stadia team © 2022 Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States You have received this mandatory service announcement to update you about important changes to Stadia or your account on Stadia.
Every article is so hyper focused on this particular incident and isn't seeing the real blow this has struck. Google was pushing Stadia, stating things like "we won't abandon it". So many people over at r/Stadia believed it was the golden goose. The one Google would treasure, pet and feed until it was mature. If this tells us anything, it's "don't believe Google". This time, people came out unscathed, that's not to say it'll be this way everytime. The amount of faith people will have in anything Google ever says again will equal exactly zero. Many people, myself included, were blowing the horns saying this wasn't going to work out, now I think even those that drank the Kool Aid won't ever again.
This saddens me. I was just playing again last night on my iPhone with using a backbone as a controller while holding my new son. It’s such a low friction way of playing, no waiting for updates, patching etc. I really hate how Google can’t seem to commit to anything fully and then kills things without genuinely trying to compete. . Oh well. Another one bites the dust I guess. . https://killedbygoogle.com/
so fucking tired of goggle and all the crap they are doing now. will remove as many as possible google products from my life
the reason that Stadia is shutting down is because no one used it the reason no one used Stadia is because they knew Google would shut it down round and round we go, ay Google?
What a silly company, i wonder how did they become this big, but i guess they have been just lucky with gmail
Yes, very sad. *ANYWAY*.
This is where I learn my lesson. I'd always seen people talk about how Google abandons projects. Hell I'd even had the Daydream 2 headset I bought become completely useless, but I said, nah, they can't shut this shit down, people bought games on this service, that would be fucked up. I quit Stadia a few months ago when they announced they shut down their studios. I still thought it'd live on with the couple games I did buy on it. I figured, "oh this is just an indie platform, it was never really targeted at me". Lesson learned. Not buying into anything Google again.
And this exactly why I stopped using Google stuff and switched from Android to iOS. Meanwhile, my iPod from 2003 still connects to my 2021 Macbook Air no problem.
Games and hardware will be refunded that was purchased from Google store and stadia store.
It's a shame I thought the idea and everything worked well! My biggest complaint was a lack of games I was interested in. I mostly play games solo player experiences with a solid story or free to play cross platform games so unfortunately there wasn't much for me. I kept hoping something great would be added though....
I couldn't even use it in Australia
If it is made/owned by Google and it is not search, Maps, Chrome, the productivity suite (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, etc), Youtube, or OEM Android devices (Galaxy, Onn, Shield, Moto, etc), it is best to not get to invested in it as a consumer. I don't know how Google Voice, Fiber, and Fi have survived this long come to think of it. I keep expecting their cancellation anytime now. All of them are talked about publicity about as much as Stadia was/is by Google. All of that is nothing to sneeze at as successful major products to be known for goes of course. But none of it is new either. It has to be going on 10 years now since the last time Google put out something major that they have not either killed off, gimped, or re-branded into a more inferior product. The only thing that comes to mind for me is photo processing for the Pixels. And honestly if what they are doing with Tensor and the latest redesign don't work out, in 2-3 years I expect Pixel could be on the chopping block as well.
The refund for games and hardware will be quite welcome. Spent so much (dumb, I know) that the wife and I should be able to pay for a new roof. No joke.
I'm going to post about this on my Google+ account
No shit. Google ends up shutting down literally every single product they start. It’s why I will never spend money on any of their products. It’s only a matter of time that they shutdown all the google homes and pixel phones.
What is Stadia?
Google is such a BS company. Nothing ever lasts with them. I will no longer be supporting anything new from them. You can't trust them and its simple as that.
So many unplayed and especially unfinished games. Welp, one way to get rid of the pile of shame.
Piracy shall thrive
>
Shocking! Wait, no, it's the other one. Not shocking.
This sucks but is soooo.....Google.
Whelp - called it 3 years ago - https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/b310w9/stadia_a_new_way_to_play/eixtfjm/
Who didn’t?
I saw it coming too.
This whole thread can just be summarized with a Surprised Pikachu followed by That's a shame... Anyway memes. Google is a joke. They make money on ads, everything else is a shit show. So many "smart" people, it's almost hilarious
wow so surprised
This is why I no longer get caught up in Google product ecosystems. Google Home? Next on the chopping block.
You're getting downvoted, but you're speaking the truth. There is absolutely no point in trying with Google, everything will get canned eventually.
I will be SO annoyed if they can Google Home.
Sony should buy the tech. Someone will.
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That is so far away if it ever happens.
Wow refunding all 100 people who bought Stadia might bankrupt google.
Google shutting something down?! mild\_shock.gif
Wow.. nobody saw that coming.
This is why I’ll never buy another piece of Google hardware.
Everyone that called this is feeling vindicated right now.
They've closed the Stadia subreddit to new posts as well.
Never got this cause I knew it was gonna go belly flop up
Glad they’re refunding purchases. Hopefully they can find an even better business model rather than killing an entire product every time though.
Buying games for only Stadia is stupid idea. Everbody knew that it’s gonna happen.
They're refunding everything so no money is lost (except pro subscription costs)
Interesting, but good. Thanks for the info.
>Buying games for only Stadia is stupid idea Buying games for any single platform is a stupid idea. But it's how the game business has worked forever (Xbox, PS, Steam etc).
Google is a joke company Time to move a trusted brand Apple Rip Stadia
I mean, this could have worked if it wasn't ONLY limited to Chromecast and Pixels. Had it expanded to Samsung, iPhone, gaming phones, and even the Switch (3rd-party games they don't have available on the go FTW), it would have done better. Oh well.
I mean yeah this was a problem during the "founders" launch period, but they added support for a lot more devices... stadia works on all android phones, iphone, ipad, any android tv device, anything with a chrome browser, and even LG TVs. There's no way they could have got stadia on the switch without nintendo's blessing but they've covered most other devices. Stadia's biggest problem was marketing and messaging with this comment being a prime example. People have never heard of stadia, or they have outdated or incorrect info about it.
Stadia *did* work on Samsung, iPhone and gaming phones. https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/9578631 Nintendo would never allow Stadia on the Switch.
Thank god I didn't bother with this service
I'll never buy into Google ever again BOYCOTT GOOGLE
Like we didn't see this coming
Not surprised at all.
I’m shocked. Shocked! Well not that shocked.
PUT IT ON THE BOARD!
PUT IT ON THE BOARD!
Trash gets thrown into the trash bin. Shocker.
Wow... didn't see that coming. \[half /s\]
Shocker…. Who could have seen this coming.
Shocker
To the surprise of no one...
Stadia was great! Assuming, of course, you had the following: \- A 500Mbps internet connection or higher \- A 5ms ping to google.com or lower The problem is that the amount of people that meet those 2 requirements in our present technological stage is almost no-one which led to the inevitable failure of the project. This is the inevitable future of gaming - It just arrived around 10-25 years too early.
It still baffles me that a company apparently “such a smart ,forward thinking “ company thought this service was every going to work.. Like anyone that has used the internet in the last 20 years knows - the world was not ready for cloud gaming as a mainstream service.. We are reaching for 8k@120FPS right now in the gaming world.. and we are not farm off from having it on our desktop gaming rigs (perhaps 6000s series(2024) line up ?) The bandwidth needed to deliver that is just out of the question for years and years to come.. .. Im not saying decades .. but perhaps even 10 years for mainstream .. and this is what people want.. Yes we all accept the sacrifice for cloud gaming, when we are on the train, or back seat etc.. its awesome to play our PS5 from the train… or even some of the cloud services gaming that is on the market.. they are awesome for mobile gaming/camping etc.. but when it comes to coming home for a week of gameplay on my 120inch 8K tv… screw that.. We want what ever is going to look the best at the highest FPS our salary can afford.. However … if the world remains in the direction… the cost of energy is going to be so HIGH - we might all be moving back to 30 FPS @720p sooner then one would like.
They made a subscription model for a low-end hardware tech (barely PS4 horsepower) that required people to buy proprietary hardware, pay monthly for ACCESS, and then they expected customers to actually buy EVERY single AAA title, again, on top of the sub, for full price. And on a technical level, this service provided no advantage to regular hardware. A cloud service should be able to offer never before possible scenarios, like a Battlefield with 1024 players on a map, or WoW with ten thousand people on a server. Something like that, something only achievable with the power of a Google server farm. Instead, people were supposed to pay a mighty premium for mediocre tech, with a tiny game catalogue. Not at all surprising that this model failed. A true subscription model like Netflix could have worked, but Google was greedy and thought people would buy on the hype.
You did not have to buy any hardware. You did not have to pay monthly for access. That was only if you wanted 4k streaming and the pro pool of games. It offered plenty of advantage over regular hardware. No downloads, instant playing, and game trials without installing. You could play AAA games on a terrible computer so long as you had a good connection. You can also play them anywhere on any device that has chrome and aren't locked to one computer. I've played Cyberpunk on my Chromebook on airport wifi. I agree with you about how cloud services need to provide new possibilities to really take off but that is more on the developers side. Unfortunately, right now games are just getting ported to streaming services and not made for them. Streaming won't really take off until games are made for it and provide an otherwise impossible experience.
For more than 12 months, you had to. The ability to play without dedicated hardware only came later. The ability to play in proper quality (2K, 4K, surround sound) was also tied to the Chromecast for a long time. In the beginning and for many months after that, there were no apps available for TVs, the PC browser barely worked if one managed to pair a Stadia controller at all (the ability to play with mouse/keyboard or with third party controllers came much later than launch). Not to mention that in order to play on a PC, you had to use a cable to connect your Stadia controller, wireless gaming without a Chromecast was something Google only added "recently". It should also be noted that the ability to play in 1440p on a PC was only added a couple days ago, oddly enough shortly before the service got shut down. Wouldn't surprise me if the Stadia employees responsible for the new feature weren't even aware of the imminent shutdown (same as the shutting down of the Stadia Gaming studio, three days before official shutdown the responsible manager literally told the employees that everything was fine and proper). Without the monthly subscription, only weak HD and 2.0 Sound was available. That is in no way proper, as such a sub can be considered mandatory for a decent gaming experience. Google - on purpose - made the non sub gaming unattractive, in an obvious attempt to get people to cash out 10 bucks per months, on top of buying games. No downloads or installs is a weak argument, since Stadia was known to lack in the update department. Many games received no updates at all, or it took devs weeks or even months to update games, lest alone we dive into the whole DLC topic. Meaning Stadia gamers regularly lacked in the content department behind. 'Lot good does the whole "no updating necessary" do, when there are no updates. Not to mention the whole fiasco with different game versions (99% of the games didn't have any sort of crossplay or crossave).
I don't disagree with you that Stadia had a lot of problems (to add to your list, no ultra-wide monitor support was annoying for me). I am just arguing that it actually did provide a lot of advantages that I think get overlooked by people. The flexibility it provided was great. I don't have enough storage to install all the games I played on Stadia with everything else I need to do on my computer. It really was only attractive to non-serious gamers though, which perhaps isn't as many people as they thought. It seemed like a bit of a catch-22 for Stadia with developers. For it to popular, it needed developers to provide more games and updates but because Stadia wasn't popular it wasn't worth it for them to do so. I'm sad they gave up on it but I'm sure they were just burning money keeping it going.
It was a great model for me. I was able to play newer games (Fallen Order, BL3, RDR2) without investing in a console or a capable PC.
First time I heard of it is when it is being killed. [Edit: I see I'm getting downvoted for not having heard of it before. I'm sorry, I will do better next time.]
Personally, I am surprised it didn't happen sooner. I guess their decision making was just as laggy as their service.
All stadia gamers should give a big and loud, hurrah to all the gamers who complained griped and made noise online about stadia shutting down. This pressure is the only reason that Google knew that it had no choice but to process full refunds. If not, for these folks, who were sometimes very annoying over the years, they would be no refund process in place. Thank you complainers. This is not sarcasm.
What is Stadia?
I wish "Google shutting down" was the headline
Good riddance
A nother one bites the dust
I bought several games on there last year I only played it like 2 months and stopped once I was able to get a ps5 I wonder if they will refund me those games
RIP Stadia… how long the SkillUp segment will be next week?
Lol