There is no reason to suppose that Google would shut down Stadia by the end of the summer, despite a story that has been going around this week.
When it was first introduced in 2019, Google Stadia enjoyed a successful debut year packed with top AAA games. However, interest in the service started to wane once Google’s first-party studio Stadia Games and Entertainment was shut down in 2017. Despite this, Stadia has continued to add games of various sizes to its collection, with Google planning to add at least 100 new games year.
This week, a Facebook fan group for Stadia was the target of a rumor that claimed Stadia would soon be taken down by a person claiming to be connected to a Google employee (the original post has since been removed). According to the report, which was spread by a user going by the name of Donny Jepp, Google revealed their departure strategy for Stadia at a retail seminar in California, saying that the service would be shut down by the end of the summer.
The banner continued by saying that Stadia would be treated similarly to Google Play Music, with customers being told 30 to 60 days in advance but remaining on the same platform. However, given that Google switched over Play Music’s users and functionality to YouTube Music, this comparison seems odd. Customers of Google Play Music given more than five months’ notice to switch to YouTube Music as well, rather than just 60 days.
Beyond the contradictions in the rumors’ assertions, the notion that Stadia will close down soon is untrue. First off, the last day of summer in 2022 is September 23, and after that day, a number of games, including FIFA 23 on September 30, will be released on Stadia. Moreover, Google would have needed to start disseminating alerts by now because the end of the summer is less than 60 days away.
What’s more, the official Google Stadia account has since tweeted with the right amount of humor, effectively dispelling this myth by parodying the seminar in California format.
Simply said, Google Stadia won’t be going away anytime soon. Instead, Google is now in a good position to expand the service by granting other businesses access to the Immersive Stream technology that Stadia is based on. Even Stadia’s expansion into Mexico has been confirmed by Google for this year.
Beyond that, our APK Insight team has been monitoring a number of additional features that should be available soon to enhance the Stadia experience, including 1440p streaming, Explore tab interactions, and motion controls. Check out our weekly Stadia Changelog feature to stay up to date on all the latest Stadia-related happenings. It is published every Friday.
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