The news that Stadia is shutting down comes as a bit of a surprise, but no one is cleaning spit or coffee off the screen; the service Stadia provided was never good, and I've never been a fan of their games. There are a few games that I like, but there is video compression, extra input lag, and other internet issues, at full price, plus a subscription fee if you want 4K streaming. There are some good features, and Stadia worked as well as game streaming does today, but Google launched before it was ready, thoughtlessly set up an in-house game studio, discontinued it a year later, and can't tell you why anyone should bet on this service! The funny ads made the whole thing really Leeroy Jenkins. [It's typical Google: the search and advertising giant has a website dedicated to commemorating the product it buried. That willingness to boldly fail may be why Google has a market cap of over $1 trillion and I don't, but it doesn't bode well for those who trusted the company's commitment to Stadia Stadia users lost access to the game and will be reimbursed While they will be reimbursed, many of their save files will disappear into thin air. On the other hand, game developers who had been working on Stadia versions of their games were apparently wasting their time, and from the reactions we are seeing, it appears that they learned of Stadia's demise at the same time we did.

From disappointment to "I-told-you-sos," here's how the gaming industry is taking the news.

(Copy that.)

Another game developer, Rebecca Heinemann, replied to the above tweet: "We have a title coming out November 1. I'm asking about this now."

PC Gamer reached out to Google for comment on what the closure would mean for studios that had contracted with Google for Stadia games, such as Mike Rose, or were working on their own versions of Stadia games.

For Stadia users, the service will operate until January 18, 2023. Regarding saved games, Google said that it may be possible to retain progress in "some games that support cross-progression play on other platforms." However, "for the vast majority of games," Google states that it is "not possible" to retain progress.