Google will shut down its Stadia gaming service in the UK and refund users’ money.

At its launch in November 2019, Stadia was billed as a “Netflix for gaming” that allowed players to stream games online without a PC or console.
The service will begin to be unavailable after 8am on 19 January in the UK, with gamers telling BBC News they are “heartbroken” that the platform will be gone.

Google has promised to refund anyone who has made purchases for Stadia in order to compensate any of the users’ recent purchases. This includes people who purchased controllers, games or downloadable content, with Google previously predicting that these refunds would be completed by mid-January.

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Google also revealed plans to make its Stadia controllers Bluetooth-capable, which will allow them to be used on PCs wirelessly to play any games, even after Stadia’s closure.

Meanwhile, Q-Games founder and CEO Dylan Cuthbert told BBC News that his team had spent two years developing the Stadia-exclusive game PixelJunk Raiders and wanted to make sure it didn’t disappear “forever”.

“It’s really a shame when people can’t play a game you’ve spent years creating.”

he said.

Mr Cuthbert said he was discussing how this could be done with Google, which has been “forward-thinking” in terms of finding a solution.

In September, Google said it was closing Stadia because it had “not gained the popularity with users” that the company had hoped for.
However, fans reacted with sadness, with many pointing out that some games developed exclusively for Stadia could be lost forever after the service’s closure.