It’s been more than a year since Googleannounced it was killing offits short-lived cloud gaming service, Stadia. Stadia was controversial from the beginning, with some praising its potential and others criticizing its lack of promised features. Stadia had some great ideas, some arguably ahead of their time, but ultimately, they were not executed in a way that resonated with most players. In the end, the skeptics were right, and Stadia joined the ever-growingGoogle Graveyardin January of this year. As much as Stadia was a failure, it did lead to a boom in the cloud gaming space, and even with Stadia gone, there are several compellingcloud gaming alternatives.
The history of Google Stadia
The first time we saw Stadia was in 2018 when it was calledProject Stream, which allowed users to play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey from the Chrome browser for free. Many said that theservice worked well, but it’shard to know if that was the caseor if that was because Google provideda free copy of the gameif users played for at least an hour, making for happy testers.
Shortly after Project Stream finished, Googleannounced Stadiaat the 2019 Game Developers Conference with a lot of promises that were met with a lot of skepticism. This release was timed well for Google as the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were at the end of their life cycle, and GPU prices were at ridiculously high levels. Stadia provided a way for users to play AAA titles without the need for an expensive game console, which appealed to many users.
A number of ground-breaking features, such as 4k resolution, a low-latency high-performance experience, giant serverside worlds, Google Assistant integration, and advanced YouTube streaming, were all promised at launch. These features seemed like a real difference maker, and many were excited to see how well the service worked.
Stadia launched in November 2019 with an initial wave of excitement, which quickly changed to disappointment once users noticed many of the promised features were missing. Many features, such as true 4K gameplay, streaming to YouTube, and the absence of game additions, left users feeling jaded. Google’s lack of response to user complaints did not help the situation, and many users madeangry Reddit postslamenting how bad the launch of the service was. Google eventually added many of the promised features, which is commendable, but the way the product was launched was abysmal.
At the beginning of 2020, Google announced it would release more than 100 games that year, a promise it eventually delivered on. In March of 2020, Google announced it would startmaking its own first-party gamesand subsequently opened up two gaming studios. This caused a lot of excitement in the Stadia and gaming community, and many saw this as Google investing in Stadia long-term. Perhaps the peak for Stadia was therelease of Cyberpunk 2077when players were able to play the highly anticipated game on the game streaming servicehours before anywhere else. On top of that, the game had a number of issues on all platforms other than Stadia, so Stadia was the best place to play the game at launch.
Unfortunately, 2021 started the decline of Stadia after Google announced early in the year that it would beclosing its game studio, a response to Microsoft’s acquisition of a number of large studios. Google still promised it wouldrelease more than 100 games in 2021, just like in 2020, but that promise wouldn’t save the doomed service. Many saw the closing of the game studio as the writing on the wall for Stadia. The beginning of 2022 yielded even moreuncertainty for Stadiawith a game library that still did not offer many AAA games or games that swathes of people were looking to play.
This doom spiral continued, and in September 2022, Google announced it would be shuttering the game streaming service in January 2023. The company did right by its users byrefunding all hardware and game costs— a classy move on Google’s part. Google also made sure Stadia controllers wouldn’t end up as e-waste byenabling Bluetooth modeso users could pair them with a range of Bluetooth-compatible devices, like phones and PCs. As a last love letter to fans, Google released itsWorm Gamea few days before the service met its demise, which was used by the Stadia team to test the service internally. Stadia finally shut down for good on June 09, 2025.
What went wrong?
There are a few primary reasons why Stadia failed. First was Google not getting the word out about the service effectively. Many people wereunaware of the service, and those who had heard about it wereconfused about how it worked. Peopleflocked to services from more established playersin the gaming space, such as Xbox Game Pass or GeForce Now, because they were already proven. Stadia was more of a novelty, and it didn’t offer enough to set it apart from much of the growing competition. As much as Stadia was a failure, it did lead to a boom in the cloud gaming space, and even with Stadia gone, there are a number of compellingcloud gaming alternativesstill kicking.
Another reason for Stadia’s failure was itslackluster library. Stadia was never able to deliver on its promise of allowing users to play AAA games from anywhere. Google managed to snag a few big-name games, such as Cyberpunk 2077 andMadden, but the selection was incredibly limited. While other platforms were getting Death Stranding, Resident Evil Village, and Elden Ring, Stadia couldn’t even land one of the various versions of Skyrim. The rest of the catalog was made up of lesser-known indie games, which didn’t entice most users since most didn’t require demanding hardware to play to begin with.
Stadia’s experience was also inconsistent. Some users, like myself, hadstable and reliable experiencesmost of the time — while other users found the servicepractically unusable, and this couldchange over time, day to day. Reliable performance when streaming obviously depends on the user’s internet provider, connection to the internet, and the device they are using to receive the stream. That’s a lot of variables outside of the user’s control., which easily led to inconsistent experiences that did not help the game service gain popularity.
Lastly, Google’s lack of commitment to the service doomed it from the beginning. Google was visibly faltering in its commitment immediately following the service’s launch, so many potential users were skeptical of the service’s long-term staying power. In other words, Stadia’s launch didn’t inspire confidence, and even though Google opened its own gaming studio, its closure approximately a year later proved even further that Google was not committed to the service. Consumers were eventually proven right, which does not help Google’s case for launching future gaming services one bit.
For me, Stadia was the perfect gaming service. I don’t play a ton of games, but I usually sink my free time into a game or two, so the ability to purchase a game and play it as long as I wanted worked out very well for me. I also don’t care too much about game resolution, so game streaming for free instead of upgrading my console every few years worked out well for me. I know my opinion was not shared by many, but I thoroughly enjoyed being a member of the Stadia community and hope to see Google release something similar it in the future.
Where is cloud gaming now?
Even though Stadia has met its demise, there are still a number of game streaming services available. They differ from Stadia in features and price, but there are still plenty of valid options for hardcore cloud game users. The aforementioned Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Game Pass are still going strong, and there are also newer entries such as Amazon Luna and some classics that are still around, like PlayStation Plus Premium.
GeForce Now is perhaps the most versatile of these options as it allows users to play games from several different PC game stores and use the games users already own from these stores. This means it has a very large game library compared to Stadia or other services. GeForce Now also supports a variety of devices like Stadia and offers some ofthe lowest latency of available cloud gaming services.
Then there is Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which may be the best-known service as it leverages the already famous Xbox brand in the game streaming space. Game Pass offers a large library of games, but not as large as GeForce Now. It also provides users with access to online console multiplayer and EA Play, bundling relevant services. Unfortunately, Game Pass is not usable on as many devices as GeForce Now and does require a paid subscription of $16.99/month, so it is best for Xbox users already tied to the brand.
And don’t forget Amazon Luna, an intriguing game streaming service from Amazon that takes a slightly different approach than the competition. Luna uses similar technology to Stadia, allowing its controller to connect directly to a game’s server, which is not required but makes the experience smoother with less latency. Prime users can play a limited number of games for free, but there are subscriptions users can pay for to play a selection of games from publishers such as Ubisoft and Jackbox games with varying pricing from $4.99/month to $17.99/month. New games are also added regularly. Even with these subscriptions, the game library on Luna is similar to Stadia in that there are not a lot of compelling AAA games available. Luna is available on a variety of devices, so you don’t need to have any special hardware to use it.
Of course, PlayStation Plus Premium is the new kid on the block, but it differs a lot from the other services we’ve discussed. It’s not technically a cloud gaming service, but it does allow users to stream PS4 games from the cloud and other older games from a PS4, PS5, or PC. The subscription provides users access to online multiplayer, similar to Game Pass Ultimate, and includes free games every month. However, PlayStation Plus Premium has a pretty small library filled with classic games and not many compelling newer titles. The service costs $17.99/month.
Personally, I haven’t picked up any competitors since Stadia left us. I think the services I listed all have pros and cons, but none of them do what I need or want. I do think cloud gaming will become popular at some point in the future, but I’m not sure we are there just yet. Yes, consoles are only getting more expensive, and I think people would be happy with the idea of never having to upgrade hardware by spreading out the cost with a monthly subscription. Of course, a lot of hardcore gamers still complain about latency and glitchiness, which will be an uphill battle to alleviate, so developers will have to make the experience practically interchangeable with local dedicated hardware for game streaming to catch on with the mainstream. Stadia showed us what cloud gaming could be, but I think we’re still far away from that being the reality for the masses.
