Google to refund three years of Stadia purchases starting this week

Google Stadia has been marked for death, and as part of the four-month shutdown process, Google has graciously promised a full refund for any games or hardware purchased from the dying service. An updated FAQ on the Google support site now explains how this process will work. Google says refunds began yesterday, Nov. 9, and the company expects “most refunds”to be completed by Stadia’s closing date, which is January 18, 2023.

Google will refund almost everything except the monthly fee for the “Stadia Pro”service. Here is the full description of the return:

We will offer refunds for all Stadia hardware purchases (Stadia Controller, Founder’s Edition, Premiere Edition, and Play & Watch with Google TV packages) made through the Google Store, and for software transactions (purchases of games and add-ons) through Stadia store. Stadia Pro subscriptions are non-refundable, however you will be able to continue playing your games in Pro at no additional charge until the final closing date.

If that doesn’t work, you’ll receive an email to the Google account used to make the purchase with instructions on how to set up an alternative return method through a partner company called “Payoneer”. If that doesn’t work, presumably because you’ve deleted your Google account, Google advises customers to “please contact Stadia customer support and be prepared to provide the deleted account’s email address, the date of your last transaction, and the amount of your last transaction.”. “

It sounds expensive

Failed services tend to hurt a company’s balance sheet, but shutting down Stadia seems especially expensive. In addition to reckoning with rejected stakeholders, Google will be left with a bunch of disposable equipment that now has no apparent use.

Stadia was also involved in the development of a custom Wi-Fi controller, and Google is also refunding those purchases. In addition to losing all the time and money invested in their development, the company will now have to do something with stacks of unsold, now almost useless controllers. Stadia basically let you rent a mid-range gaming PC remotely, and since Google’s regular hardware stack isn’t suited for PC gaming, the company had to invest in a bunch of dedicated server hardware specifically for Stadia. Now Google will try to salvage that hardware by selling what’s left of Stadia as a Google cloud service called “Immersive Stream for Games”.

As for this disposable hardware, there is currently a campaign going on to force Google to unlock the Stadia controller so it can be a generic Bluetooth controller. Google hasn’t commented on the idea yet, but the FAQ notes that if you don’t mind turning back time 20 years, you can still use a wired controller. It’s not perfect, and given that the controller is already Bluetooth-compatible, it would be nice if Google fixes general wireless support to cut down on e-waste.

“We ask for your patience as we work through each transaction and ask that you refrain from contacting support as they will not be able to expedite your refund during this time,”Google said.

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