Stadia is finally getting attention from the gaming community—but that’s because it’s shutting down. As Google continues dealing with refunds on games and equipment until Jan. 18, 2023, Ubisoft has come forward to try and help with the entire fiasco.
Stadia is a cloud-based gaming service from Google that often found itself under the radar thanks to poor marketing, less than stellar performance, and a lack of original games. It seemed like Google was trying to slowly let it die under the radar, although the company claimed Stadia was alive and well in 2021. But it was eventually announced on Sept. 29 that Stadia was shutting down the following year.
“It hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected, so we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service,” Stadia vice president Phil Harrison said.
Stadia’s shutdown was no surprise to most gamers, but the real discussion revolved around Google’s promise that it would provide refunds for all games and equipment until mid-January. Many began wondering how the process would work.
Ubisoft has decided to provide some answers.
Ubisoft responds to Stadia shut down
On Twitter, Ubisoft Support told Stadia players that there was good news for at least some of their Stadia games.
Ubisoft stated that the publisher is working to bring the games people to own on Stadia to PC through Ubisoft Connect. This means that gamers can keep their games without interruption while still getting a refund from Google.
So far, there are not many details regarding this update from Ubisoft. The company said they would have more to say about the “impact for Ubisoft+ subscribers” at a “later date.”
Meanwhile, the gaming community has largely praised Ubisoft for the gesture. While some accused Ubisoft of being “greedy” for not wanting people to get refunds on Ubisoft games, others pointed out that Stadia would still be providing refunds for these games. Some also questioned what could be done for people without PCs, but others responded that this wasn’t really Ubisoft’s fault.
Overall, it seemed like Ubisoft had gamers’ best interests in mind when offering to transfer games over to PC. While it may not solve every issue for Stadia owners, it was a nice gesture that many applauded. For now, Stadia owners will have to wait to hear more from Ubisoft and Google regarding game transfers and refunds.
