The Rise and Fall of Stadia

Stadia was launched by Google in November 2019 but was shut down by January 2023, signaling a major failure in cloud gaming. The concept of streaming games without the need for expensive hardware was initially appealing, yet many users found the service cumbersome and untrustworthy from the start. Trust issues arose because players had to purchase games specifically for the Stadia platform, with no ability to transfer existing game licenses. Ultimately, the service's failure underscored the critical role of latency and consumer confidence in the viability of cloud gaming solutions.