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Google announced Thursday that it will shut down Stadia, the cloud video gaming service it launched three years ago. This will allow people to access console-quality games as easily as their email. Google Vice President Phil Harrison said, “We have made the difficult decision to discontinue the Stadia streaming service after it did not get the traction we had hoped for from our users.
Google has refunded his Stadia hardware purchases, such as controllers, as well as game content purchased through its online store, and said gamers will be able to access the service until January 18 next year.
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said of Stadia:
“They tried to offer the service as a subscription without the game.”
Microsoft is considered a heavyweight in streaming video games with its Xbox Game Pass service and large community of gamers using its consoles and desktop computers.
Meanwhile, Xbox maker Microsoft has a competing Game Pass service that “contains a ton of games,” making it a more attractive option for gamers, Pachter said. Game Pass has about 25 million subscribers, while Stadia has less than 1 million.
Based in Redmond, Washington, the company also has a number of video game studios.
Microsoft makes the Xbox video game console, but now you can play your titles on any internet-connected device with cloud-hosted titles.
Microsoft recently announced that the ability to play Xbox games will be coming to Samsung Smart TVs in its latest cloud gaming move. Head of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer said: post.
Microsoft entered one of the world’s most profitable markets, the big leagues, earlier this year by announcing his $69 billion deal to acquire video game maker Activision Blizzard. This is the largest acquisition in industry history. Amazon aims to expand its multi-faceted empire into the booming gaming industry with the general launch of its Luna video game streaming service in the US earlier this year.
As part of cloud gaming technology seen as the future direction of the industry, Luna allows gamers to access games directly online without the need for a console.