Google has begun refunding Stadia players ahead of the platform’s demise

Ahead of the demise of its cloud gaming service Stadia, Google has begun processing refunds of all “purchases of games, add-on content and subscriptions fees other than Stadia Pro.”

• READ MORE: Google Stadia is dead, what went wrong?

Google announced that Stadia would be shutting down back in September, with the platform clinging to life before its servers are shut down completely early next year.

Given that players will lose access to all of their games once the platform is good and dead, Google is now processing refunds, as it announced via an FAQ on their support page (via VGC).

“Starting November 9, 2022, Stadia will attempt to automatically process refunds for all purchases of games, add-on content and subscriptions fees other than Stadia Pro made through the Stadia Store,” said Google.

“We ask for your patience as we work through each transaction and ask that you refrain from contacting Customer Support as they will not be able to expedite your refund during this time. We still expect the majority of refunds to be processed by January 18th, 2023.”

According to Google, refunds will be made via the method used to make the original payment. If they are unable to do this, Google will contact users via the Google account linked to their Stadia account with instructions on how to set up an alternate refund method.

Those who have made 20 or fewer purchases on the Stadia store will receive one email per transaction, while those who have made over 20 purchases will receive a single email “summarizing all refund attempts.”

Getting their money back isn’t the only priority for former Stadia players, however. A number of developers have begun to provide ways for fans to transfer their saves to another platform before the service is shuttered entirely. That includes one Red Dead Redemption 2 player, who stood to lose a 6,000 hour save until Rockstar stepped in to save the day.

In other gaming news, Warzone 2.0 is offering players a novel new way to escape the Gulag, if they can co-operate.

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