Google Stadia never mattered, and it never had a chance Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales | The Verge Google had big plans for its cloud gaming service, but it never tipped the scales. Soon, Google will be shutting it down. Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service will soon be no more, as the company announced that it’s shutting down the service early next year. Google touted ambitious plans when Stadia launched, but it never posed any real threat to established players like Sony and Microsoft. And because of Google’s general lack of commitment to anything but its biggest cash cow — digital advertising — Stadia never really stood a chance. When Google first showed Stadia at GDC 2019 , it discussed sky-high aspirations that looked disruptive. You’d be able to stream games to all of your devices! You could jump into a game from a YouTube clip! The company was even establishing its own game studio for exclusive titles headed up by industry vet Jade Raymond. It was easy to dream about Stadia’s potential It was easy to dream along with Google. Perhaps one of the biggest tech companies in the world, one that knows a thing or two about streaming things , would be able to succeed where others failed .