By now, most of you cloud gamers have read the news. Google Stadia is shutting down. Something many people expected will be happening. On January 18th, the service will shut down and all bought games will be refunded. You can read the official statement below:
Stadia players, you may already have seen the message shared on Google’s main blog just now. This is a short recap of the most important information for players from the main post:
– You will continue to have access to your games library through January 18, 2023 so you can complete final play sessions and move your progress to alternate platforms where possible.
– Commerce functionality (the ability to buy games, new subscriptions, add-ons or in-game purchases) on Stadia has now been disabled.
– Google will offer a full refund of all Stadia hardware purchases (Stadia Controller, Stadia Founder’s Edition, Stadia Premiere Edition, or Play and Watch with Google TV Package) made in the Google Store and all purchases of games and in-game transactions made in the Stadia Store.
The refund process will take us some time to complete, and we expect to have the majority of refunds completed by the middle of January 2023. Please allow us until this time before contacting our support team regarding the status of your refund(s).
Stadia Pro subscription payments will not be eligible for refund, but if you are an active subscriber, you will continue to have access to your library without charge during the shut-down period.
As we begin the work of processing refunds to customers, Stadia customer service agents will not be able to provide more information to you at this time. For information and updates, please review the information on our Help Center, which will include new information as it becomes available. We’ll also contact players directly via email shortly with more information.
What does this mean for the Cloud Gaming Catalogue Stadia listings?
The Cloud Gaming Catalogue will be updated accordingly. For now, all games which are added to Stadia will be changed to “Yes, unavailable for purchase”. All games that were reportedly coming soon, have been changed to no. Near the date when Google Stadia is shutting down, the Stadia category will be removed from game pages and the catalogue. Any games that were Stadia exclusive for cloud gaming (And surprisingly, it’s a lot) will be set to unavailable.