Today’s the day. After an abrupt announcement of its closure back in September 2022, Google is pulling the plug on Stadia at 11:59 p.m. PT tonight. As the end approaches, what did Stadia mean to you? What will you miss most?
Google Stadia launched in 2019 on the back of big promises. Google’s original pitch for the service was full of grandeur, with the idea of tools that were only possible in the cloud, games that couldn’t be played anywhere else, and even bigger additions in the future.
Of course, many of those promises were in a bit of a rough state at launch.
When Stadia was made available to customers in November 2019, it lacked nearly all of the unique features Google had promised, and had a very limited game library. Plus, it required a pricey hardware purchase for the first few months, leading to a lot of negative reactions from the gaming community. It’s a reputation that Stadia never quite shook, but there was a fanbase that grew to love the platform over time.
Top comment by Carpentractor
I really liked it as a non-gamer who could buy one or two games(F1 is my jam) and sit down and play the games with zero lag and not have to invest in any hardware other than a controller. For people like me this was an ideal experience and it worked well. Wish this had worked out.
“Stadians” were an enthusiastic community of players that enjoyed the service for what it was, and came to love its benefits despite its flaws. For many, Stadia was what brought them back to gaming because it solved real problems, like waiting hours for game downloads or console updates. It also made games more accessible by bringing it to a variety of devices.
For me, that was much of the appeal of Stadia. I loved being able to access the same library of games across nearly every device in my home, with the same controller even. It’s a magic that can’t be fully replicated, despite cloud gaming’s best tries.
Over the weeks leading up to Stadia’s shutdown, “Stadians” over on the platform’s official subreddit have shared their experiences with the platform. One experience I’ve seen a few times that keeps coming to mind is how Stadia appealed to families. While the service launched with a mostly adult-focus, it grew over time to be a fantastic way to host games for children. The platform’s family-sharing tools enabled parents to share specific games with their children’s accounts, and the user-friendly interface of Stadia across devices meant that older children could probably navigate everything on their own. It’s something that no other cloud platform really replicates either.
What about you? What element of Stadia meant the most to you? What’s your favorite story about the platform? Let’s talk in the comments below!
More on Google Stadia:
- You should download all of your Google Stadia data right now – here’s how
- What game did you play most on Google Stadia? [Poll]
- Here’s how the Stadia Controller works with Bluetooth
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