Google’s cloud streaming service Stadia, the last remnant of the platform’s original technology, has also been shut down.
When Google Stadia was shut down earlier this year, it was announced that part of the project’s cloud infrastructure would be used in Google Cloud and offered to third parties interested in the technology.
Now, according to Axios reporter Steven Totilo, that last pivot has also been shut down. After the repositioning of cloud streaming technology, it was used on a limited scale, such as offering a streaming version of Batman: Arkham Knight with certain service packages to AT&T customers.
The technology has also been used by non-gaming companies like fitness giant Peloton to offer gamified versions of their workouts via the cloud, but the technology is now closed as well.
In announcing plans to shut down Stadia in September 2022, the platform’s CEO Phil Harrison acknowledged that the service didn’t get the user response that Google had hoped for when it launched in November 2019.
At the time of the shutdown announcement, Google also confirmed that it intends to refund all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, as well as all games and additional content purchased through the Stadia Store.
Stadia’s closure follows the company’s decision to shut down all of its in-house game development teams in 2021, which it claimed at the time was to focus on partnering with third-party studios.
This decision was followed by several high-profile layoffs. These included former Stadia games chief Jade Raymond, who left to create the new PlayStation-backed studio Haven and has since hired six more former Stadia employees.
