Google gives up on Stadia, will offer refunds on games and hardware

Quoting: Whitewolfe80

Quoting: pbI got to play games like *and* get a refund afterwards? How not to love Stadia, really?
There's also a TAKEAWAY option to download your saves and (hopefully) use them in the versions purchased from steam etc. Won't always work (I don't have much hopes for Hitman 3 as it uses online sync and cross-platform is not supported), but Cyberpunk should work and many others as well. It's bittersweet as I liked Stadia but it is what it is.

Okay help me out here not being douchy why did you like a service where you have to pay to get the hardware pay to be a member then actually buy the game with craptastic prices

People didn't actually have to pay a monthly fee for Stadia; it's just Google's terrible marketing made it look like they did.

Quoting: elmapulso what happens to exclusives like guilty?

You mean Gylt, right? I guess it's better to complete it while it still works, just in case.
I played it during a free week but didn't manage to finish.
I wonder if they will refund purchases made between today and the shutdown date.

[edit] ok, so the store is now closed. Quite obvious really, as people would 100% exploit it if the above was the case.


Last edited by pb on 29 September 2022 at 11:13 pm UTC

Really, it's amazing Google make so much money, because they are obviously pretty terrible at business. Decent at technology, but terrible at business. I guess they just were the people with the right piece of internet tech in the right place at the right time, and it doesn't matter how many other mistakes they make as long as they keep that stranglehold on search + ads.

It's kind of comforting actually, because they clearly jettisoned "don't be evil" a long time ago and want to be bastards like Facebook or early Microsoft, so if they're going to be like that I'm glad they're pretty crap at it.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 29 September 2022 at 11:04 pm UTC

Considering how crappy GeForce NOW is, this is really bad news. Looking forward to Amazon Luna, but I don't have any higher hopes anymore...

Quoting: AsciiWolfConsidering how crappy GeForce NOW is, this is really bad news. Looking forward to Amazon Luna, but I don't have any higher hopes anymore...

Yeah, Stadia's tech was far superior to GFN. Problably because Linux vs Windows, hehe
Anyway, all hope in Valve for the long term, as usual.

I'm pretty sad they are shutting down the service. I enjoyed playing on it, I had good performance, good visuals, good latency. And it enabled me playing games, I wouldn't be able to play otherwise. I've even been a pro subscriber from the beginning, nevertheless I bought some games there, e.g. The Division 2, Chorus, even Cyberpunk 2077 (before plagman2 tweeted about Proton support on day 1)... I completed Metro Exodus on Stadia.
My little son was playing with friends on a regular basis on our TV...

Yeah, I'll miss Stadia. RIP.


Last edited by Corben on 29 September 2022 at 11:09 pm UTC

Despite closing the store, the free trials still work, just checked it: https://stadia.google.com/store/list/47
So those of you who never tried Stadia but have a google account and chrome - you can go and see what we're about to lose. You don't have to like it, but it's still good to know.

LMAO

Instead of offering a better service for customers they just gonna shut it all down... typical!

Quoting: ertuquequeI'm actually happy Stadia is dead... The whole concept of streaming games is inherently discriminatory to the majority of the world, which doesn't have good Internet connection. At least 2 entire continents are out of this business because of this.

so? the most well sold video game console, sold 157 millions of units, in a world with
6~7 billion, i would say, most people didnt had access to one either, and not all of then due to the lack of interest.
no platform was ever universal, that is not an excuse to not give an option.
maybe in a few regions consoles are too expensive, but streaming isnt or the other way arround.

Quoting: ertuquequeAlso, the idea of paying for a videogame that after some time is not going to be available... nope, not for me. That's another reason why I don't like Netflix and all these streaming services. I want to HAVE what I pay for, locally.

that i have to agree with, but i dont see how having less options would be a good thing.
the solution here should be google giving an fallback option.
make an client to downlod the games you own on pc/mac/linux in case you want to play offline, or give away steam keys, hell even they said that the most played game ever was their dinossaur chrome game, i guesses that was an hint they were planing something for offline consumers...

now that we have less options, its more likely that the ones we have may move to a cloud only future.
to be fair, the fact that the cloud only service died might send then the message.

I'm surprised they're refunding anything.

Quoting: LoftyWith Google stadia they wanted to become private landlord barons of gaming. Rent your games forever and own nothing, kick you out and lose everything when you cant afford the admission fee or have opinions they don't like.

the rent games forever issue can be solved with piracy, so long the games arent exclusives to cloud, honestly, the censorship point of view scares me more.
i mean, a lot of people would self censor in order to not lose an account, even if they could just pirate instead.

Quoting: LoftyGlad it's finally gone. And if the financially successful Steam Deck is proving anything, it's that people actually like to OWN PHYSICAL THINGS they can touch.

not really, this just prove this market dont have space for many players, unless luna and xcloud die, then it will prove people want ownership.

Quoting: RandomizedKirbyTree47For example, exhibit A:

that is why i love discussion forums and comment sections, we always see comments like this.

that is funny and clever, but who talk like this IRL? IRL people are boring most of the time.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyPeople didn't actually have to pay a monthly fee for Stadia; it's just Google's terrible marketing made it look like they did.

google or a bunch of influencers who lied?

Quoting: pb

Quoting: elmapulso what happens to exclusives like guilty?

You mean Gylt, right? I guess it's better to complete it while it still works, just in case.
I played it during a free week but didn't manage to finish.
I wonder if they will refund purchases made between today and the shutdown date.

[edit] ok, so the store is now closed. Quite obvious really, as people would 100% exploit it if the above was the case.

er... nope, not avaliable on my country

Quoting: elmapul

Quoting: Purple Library GuyPeople didn't actually have to pay a monthly fee for Stadia; it's just Google's terrible marketing made it look like they did.

google or a bunch of influencers who lied?

All I know is what I read here, and back when it was significant news Liam regularly noted both (a) that the actual deal did not require subscription, and (b) that figuring this out from anything Google were saying was nigh impossible. He opined repeatedly both that the service itself worked pretty well and was, all concerns about the fundamental nature of streaming game services aside, a decent offer, and that in his opinion Google were doing a perfectly pathetic job of selling it. Not just the bad messaging on subscription, but terrible ads and all kinds of stuff. I'm prepared to take his word.

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: elmapul

Quoting: Purple Library GuyPeople didn't actually have to pay a monthly fee for Stadia; it's just Google's terrible marketing made it look like they did.

google or a bunch of influencers who lied?

All I know is what I read here, and back when it was significant news Liam regularly noted both (a) that the actual deal did not require subscription, and (b) that figuring this out from anything Google were saying was nigh impossible. He opined repeatedly both that the service itself worked pretty well and was, all concerns about the fundamental nature of streaming game services aside, a decent offer, and that in his opinion Google were doing a perfectly pathetic job of selling it. Not just the bad messaging on subscription, but terrible ads and all kinds of stuff. I'm prepared to take his word.

I looked like they did make the offer of free subscription plus buying games, but did not really want to sell that (but the paid subscription instead). There's something similar here with consumer contracts with short period of notice. Companies have to offer it, but they're not going to thrust it upon you.

If at least let us download the games/save files, have the ability to sincronize the saves, and play the games we owned on local... I would buy the games without thinking it.
But pay and only be able to play when I have a good online connection? No thanks.
Even the games wasn't cheap. I could find easily the same games on steam/gog or other with cheaper prices.
For me, the cloud is an extra.

i have mixed feelings here.
i didnt wanted cloug gaming to be a thing, but seeing the only linux solution being the first to sink still gives it a bad taste...
i kinda wished it was an success because it could help us but at the same time, now that we have the deck we dont need it anymore, and google dominating the market with android didnt helped the linux desktop much if any, so who could gurantee they would ever contribute back?
on the other hand, its one less big player relying on vulkan and helping fund it i guess.
or maybe not:

i think one of the reasons google invested on stadia was to make chromebooks viable for gaming, now that gfn, xcloud, luna and steam supports chromebooks, they dont need it anymore, so it was an win win situation for then, either they got support from thirdies or they got an monopoly on chromebooks, the same can be said about the deck, either other stores support linux nativelly or most purchases will be done on steam (steam is already the most used store on pc, but their dominance will be even higher on steamOS devices)

well thats awkward, cloud gaming seemed like an nescessary evil to make linux mainstream but at the same time an price to high to swallow, but now cloud will become even more closed.
well amazon seem to be "dualbooting" or something, and maybe others will adopt stadia tech via whitelabeling, and maybe it will even become the defactuo standard for the cloud especially considering that companies will know that their OS/tech provider cant compete with then, after the stadia fiasco no one (consummers) would trust google again, so if others want to licence this tech for their own cloud solutions they will not think twice.

Can't wait to cash in and hopefully someday mod it

I wish all Cloud gaming would die.

Call me a dinosaur, insult me, whatever. I don't care. I will never accept streaming games from someone else's hardware, in addition to the "always online" mandate. People who mandate an Internet connection are people who've never had to deal with a spotty connection.