If there was a company with the potential to launch a cloud gaming service, it was Google. However, when the company announced Google Stadia, the format quickly became obsolete. Microsoft and NVIDIA launched more reliable services and didn’t require a huge investment. You can simply start playing from your smartphone. Google Stadia, on the other hand, requires you to pay for games and to get a particular Stadia controller. The service also had other lackluster aspects, but anyway, it’s gone.
It was inevitable, after all, Google has been showing a certain lack of interest in its own service. Yesterday, the company finally announced – it’s shutting down Google Stadia in 2023. Some were caught by surprise, while insiders knew it was coming at some point. The search giant promises to refund game purchases. However, Ubisoft is offering an alternative for some users. The French studio has been known for supporting Google Stadia, by promptly offering some of its most important games.
Ubisoft offers an alternative for those who got their games in Google Stadia
If you’ve bought any of Ubisoft’s games on Google Stadia, you can transfer these games to a PC. Ubisoft offers almost its entire portfolio in Stadia. Therefore, games like Assassins Creed Odyssey, Valhalla, and Far Cry 6 are available on Google Stadia. Ubisoft is offering a way to transfer your “game’s license” to its own library. Therefore, you’ll have a license to download and play these games on a PC.
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The company, however, didn’t explicitly mention when exactly players will be able to do so. However, it may come with more details at some point. The company’s senior corporate communications manager Jessica Roache left the following statement:
“While Google Stadia will shut down on January 18th, 2023, we’re happy to share that we’re currently working to bring the games you own on Stadia to PC through Ubisoft Connect. We’ll have more to share regarding specific details as well as the impact for Ubisoft+ subscribers at a later date.”
However, this may not be interesting for everyone. After all, Google Stadia is a cloud gaming service, where you don’t need hardware. What Ubisoft offers here considers you have a PC with hardware to enjoy this game. So we assume that there are dozens of subscribers without the needed hardware to enjoy this alternative. Well, for those, Google’s way may still be more interesting. The company will offer refunds to all customers.
Google will offer refunds on all Stadia hardware purchased through the Google Store. Moreover, it will be refunding all game purchases and pre-orders. That includes add-on content from Stadia Store. The only thing that is not getting a refund is the Stadia Pro subscription.
The company will inform its users through e-mail. Moreover, it will update the support page with details in a near future. The service will be operational for the time being. However, it will stop on January 18, 2023. Google wants to process all refunds by mid-January 2023. The Stadia development team will join other roles in the search giant.
The cloud gaming service that never was
That’s definitely a sad end for a company that had potential. Or at least, we believed in Google’s potential. After all, it’s a search for a giant, pioneer of many interesting technologies, and also a strong company in cloud solutions. Unfortunately, the Google Stadia proposal quickly became obsolete when competition emerged. As we’ve said before, Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce Now are walking fast to become very reliable and stable cloud gaming services. NVIDIA’s platform, for instance, can already offer 144 fps gaming.
We don’t know if Google will ever join this segment again. But after this big failure, we don’t have big hopes. The company will likely put Google Stadia in the same cemetery where Orkut, Google+, and other failures are buried.
