Most players should have noticed by now that Google Stadia will turn off the lights in January. Some are not at all happy about this and the first demands are loud.
The long-awaited end of Google Stadia has been official since last night. That much is certain. And even if the service did not have the expected number of users, the remaining players are now concerned. Although at least partial amounts for the purchased games and hardware are refunded, there are other problems.
Those players who have actually used Stadia are now worried about their precious saves, especially with longer titles like Cyberpunk 2077. As a reminder: Stadia versions are independent and usually have no cross-save or other connections to other platform versions. Understandable, then, especially since it is definitely easier to get a different platform version cheaply through a sale than to replace hundreds of hours of game time.
Although some have already managed to save their saved games using Google Takeout and export them to Steam or GoG, not everyone succeeds in doing so. Now the players are demanding that the respective game developers create ways to somehow secure the Stadia saves in order to use them on other platforms. It should be exciting to see if there is a solution, maybe even from Google.
Another problem concerns the Stadia controller, which unfortunately can only be used with Stadia. A refund was also announced here and that there was no need to return it. Although the controllers basically have Wi-Fi and BlueTooth, they cannot be used on PCs or consoles. Here, too, demands are being made to activate the corresponding features with a last firmware update or to convert the firmware to open source so that the controllers do not have to end up in electronic waste.
These should probably not be the last demands and effects. Some developers were also surprised by the Stadia exit via Twitter, especially some who were already working on Stadia titles and now do not know what to do with their games. Apparently the announcement of the end of Stadia was not communicated to any partners in advance – which is not really surprising given Google’s behavior with regard to Stadia. We’re more puzzled as to why anyone was still working on Stadia titles. It remains to be hoped that the studios – mostly indie developers – will find other ways to finish their titles and get them out to the public.
Google has announced that it will close all of its in-house game development studios. Has the Stadia project failed with that?
