Google’s announcement it would be shutting down its Stadia cloud streaming gaming platform did not come as a complete shock given Stadia’s struggles, but the news still surprised a lot of game developers, including one of gaming’s well-known titans.
According to a post from Bungie’s help section for Destiny 2, Bungie learned about Stadia being shut down just as the rest of the world found out. Bungie has now “begun conversations about next steps” for Stadia players and is working on a plan of action for players with Stadia accounts for Destiny 2.
Per Destiny Tracker, 1 percent of tracked players who play Destiny 2 do so on Stadia. While that percent may not seem like a lot, several different player count websites estimate the total of Destiny 2 players at around 40 million, and Destiny Tracker tracks around 25 million players. That means that hundreds of thousands of players will be without their preferred platform in just a few months.
Other developers were taken by surprise as well. Mike Rose of No More Robots said the publisher has a game coming to Stadia in November but has received no email or “clarity” from Stadia about the status of that game. Other indie devs with games coming out on Stadia soon also said they found out via the news.
When Google announced the Stadia shutdown, it also revealed it would offer its players full refunds for hardware purchased through the Google Store and software purchased from the Stadia store.
Bungie plans to release information regarding the next steps for its Destiny 2 Stadia players soon. Stadia’s servers will remain up until Jan. 18, 2023.
Published: Sep 30, 2022 12:01 pm