The End is Nigh
When launched back in 2019 Google Stadia was still a new concept for most gamers. All the game purchases were cloud based, and many questioned what would happened if the service stopped.
Now is the time to really find out. On September 29th, Google sent an email to all the Stadia owners, advising that the service would shutdown permanently on January 18, 2023. Players with subscriptions and those who purchased games would still be able to play to this date unless the server owner of the game were to shutdown that service before. As for the user that purchased Stadia hardware on the Google Store a refund will be offered. The refunds should be completed by the time the service is shutdown. Users with active subscription on September 29th can still have access to the games including the Pro.
Google is aware that people may be frustrated and decides to delete their account, they understand but they advise that in doing so it could impact your refund. This is not the first time that the web giant tried to get into gaming and failed. In 2021 they had already closed the Stadia Games & Entertainment studio in Montreal. As the major console manufacturers recognized, having your own studio to develop games is an intricate part of the business. Therefore in closing its own studio, Google Stadia hammered the first nail in its coffin.
I was one of the purchasers of the Founders Edition of the controller. It was nice to play games from the TV and switch to the PC to continue the journey. In the end with games that were already available on the other consoles, there was no incentive in pulling out that controller.
Recently Ubisoft announce the launch date of the game Skull and Bones for March 2023, since Stadia is listed as the available platform, I would guess the publisher was not advised of the imminent closure. Unlike the phoenix Google Stadia will no revive from its ashes.