Google shutting down cloud video game service Stadia, it launched three years ago to let people access console-quality play as simply as they do email.
“It hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected so we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service,” Google vice president Phil Harrison said in a blog post.
Google said it will repay purchases of Stadia hardware, such as controllers, as well as game content bought over its online store, and that players will have right to use to the service through January 18 of next year, he added.
“They had a great idea and a bad business model,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said of Stadia.
“They tried to offer the service as a subscription without games.”
Xbox-maker Microsoft, temporarily, offered a rival Game Pass service “with a ton of games,” making it a more tempting option for players, Pachter said.
Game Pass has some 25 million subscribers, although Stadia has fewer than a million, the analyst noted.
Microsoft considered the streaming video game heavyweight with its Xbox Game Pass service and large community of players who use its comforts and desktop computers.
The Redmond, Washington-based company also has a stable of video game studios.
Amazon initial this year launched its Luna video game streaming service for the general public in the United States, targeting to expand its multi-pronged empire into the booming gaming industry.
Luna allows players to access games directly online with no need for a calm as part of the cloud gaming technology that seen as a future direction of the industry.
Luna takes on Microsoft and PlayStation-maker Sony as well as Stadia.