Google said it will end its Stadia gaming service because it has failed to attract enough interest from gamers nearly three years after its launch, according to news published by Reuters.
Game companies are facing slowing demand for video games, and Stadia's near-term outlook looked bleak as high inflation caused some consumers to cut back on their entertainment spending.
"Although Stadia's approach to streaming games to consumers has been built on a strong technical foundation, it has not been able to attract users as we expected," Phil Harrison, vice president and general manager of Stadia, said in a post.
The company said it will return all purchases of Stadia devices sold through the Google Store, and all purchases of games and additional content made through the Stadia Store.
However, players will continue to access and play their game library until January 18.
And last year, Google said it would stop internal development of games for Stadia, making it completely dependent on games from other game developers and publishers.
The launch of Stadia in 2019 came along with an in-house game development unit that was expected to make games specifically for the platform.