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The announcement of Google Stadia's discontinuation in the first month of 2023 has been disappointing for many developers as many of them were close to finishing their video games.
The news broke out of the blue yesterday, September 29, via a blog post from its parent company. Google Stadia will officially shut down on Januray 18 and users will receive refunds for all the hardware, software, and add-on game content they've bought by mid-January.
Game developers for the platform had no prior notice and received the news at the same time as the consumers.
The future of Google Stadia was uncertain, but the discontinuation has confirmed its failure
Many developers working hard to release their games on Google Stadia are expressing their shock and frustration. They had expected the company to inform them about the platform's demise so they could've stopped spending resources to release their games on the platform.
Here's how a few people from the industry reacted:
Video game designer Rebecca Heineman spoke about how the news came in very late:
No More Robots director Mike Rose talked about sudden news being one of the reasons why they didn't bring their games to Stadia:
Accessibility advocate, host, and creator Steve Saylor expressed his sympathy for the developers:
SFB Games co-founder Tom Vian's Tangle Tower will be releasing on Google Stadia in a couple of days.
Necrosoft Games director Brandon Sheffield's Hyper Gunsport will be released on Stadia in November. He talked about how the platform is great for developer revenue:
Developers of From Space, Triangle Studios asked fans for their help:
Many of Google Stadia's game developers have been left with no answer and an uncertain future. A huge number of games were set to release on the platform which will now have to be canceled, and some of the titles and DLCs include:
- From Space
- Outward
- Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova
- Destiny 2: Lightfall
- Trackmania
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla: The Last Chapter
- Resident Evil Village: Shadow of Rose
A Red Dead Redemption 2 player with more than 5000 hours on record on Stadia is protesting against Google for his save file, hoping something can be done. The cancelation of the service will also hurt the players.
Although consumers will be refunded for any hardware or software they've purchased, all the progress made in-game on Stadia will be lost with the save files not being transferrable to other platforms.
Google has stated that the workers behind the Google Stadia project will be transferred to other departments. Moreover, the technology behind the project will be used in other parts of the company such as YouTube, Augmented Reality (AR), and Google Play.
The company expressed its commitment to gaming as well and promised to continue investing in new tools, technologies, and platforms, which could be a hint toward a new gaming platform from Google.
