Google is Not Killing Stadia

Google responded to a rumor about Stadia, stating emphatically that it has no plans to shutter the game streaming service.

“Stadia is not shutting down,” the official Google Stadia account tweeted in response to a question about the rumor. “Rest assured we’re always working on bringing more great games to the platform and Stadia Pro. Let us know if you have other questions.”

There have been concerns about Stadia’s future since, well, Google announced the service. But those concerns reached a fever pitch when Google killed its in-house game studio in early 2021.

So what kicked off this latest round of silliness? The Twitter account Killed by Google shared a Facebook post, allegedly written by a friend who now works for Google, claiming that Google would kill Stadia by “the end of the summer.” He also erroneously likened it to what Google did with Google Play Music, claiming it would use “the same exit approach and strategy.” (Google migrated Google Play Music to YouTube Music, which is very much an ongoing concern.)

Google’s initial response probably went over most readers’ heads.

“Just a heads up,” the Stadia account had originally tweeted, echoing the language used by the Killed by Google re-post. “Old coworker of mine is now one of the social managers for Google. They had a pretty large seminar in California this past weekend, and long story short you now can play Wavetale at no additional cost on Stadia Pro until August 1.”

Anyway. Stadia isn’t dead yet.