Contrary to what you might have heard previously few days, Google says it’s not shutting down its Stadia gaming service. The firm issued the assertion after a rumor started circulating earlier this week that recommended it will sundown the platform later this yr. “Stadia is not shutting down,” the official Stadia Twitter account instructed a involved fan in a tweet noticed by PC Gamer. “Rest assured we’re always working on bringing more great games to the platform and Stadia Pro.”
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Some Stadia followers had been satisfied Google would lastly pull the plug on the service after Cody Ogden of Killed by Google fame, a Twitter account and weblog that retains monitor of the corporate’s always increasing graveyard, shared a publish from a Facebook fan group. According to the message, an “old coworker and friend” instructed the poster Google had lately held a gathering to debate Stadia’s future — or lack thereof. They claimed the corporate would shut down the platform by the tip of the summer time and would accomplish that utilizing the identical technique it employed with Google Play Music.
At the time, the one commentary Ogden, a self-proclaimed shitposter, provided on the publish was a popcorn emoji. However, that wasn’t sufficient to cease the rumor from sending a lot of the Stadia neighborhood, together with the official subreddit, into freefall. To its credit score, Google responded to the episode with a little bit of humor.
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That even a thinly sourced rumor precipitated upheaval among the many Stadia neighborhood isn’t shocking. The service has been on an prolonged deathwatch ever since Google shut down its first-party studios. The incident highlights the unhealthy parasocial relationships folks can generally have with tech firms like Google. “Communities that are confident in their continued existence don’t respond like some of the things that have been hurled at me in public and in DMs the past couple days,” Ogden mentioned after the mud settled. “If even the suggestion that a piece of technology could go away affects you so deeply that it brings you to threats, maybe you need to reevaluate your relationship with the tech?”
