The Stadia service is being scrapped after multiple issues
(Picture: Google)Google has begun refunding Stadia customers just weeks after unceremoniously announcing the end of the game-streaming service.
Read on to find out what you need to do to receive a refund on the purchases you made on the platform. These include games, downloadable content, subscriptions, and hardware devices, such as a Google Stadia controller, Founders Edition, Premiere Edition, and Play and Watch with Google TV packages.
What is Stadia?
This is a cloud-gaming platform that allowed you to play games over the internet, including powerful console and PC titles such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Customers could buy the games individually, sign up to Stadia Pro for a monthly fee for access to a selection of playable titles, or play some free of charge, such as Destiny 2. Stadia is available on smart TVs, media players such as Google TV and Chromecast, mobile, and laptops.
However, the service was plagued with issues from its launch, such as Google scrapping its internal game-development division and a lack of major titles and general apathy (as well as downright derision) from the gaming community.
In late September 2022, Google declared it was shutting down the service, relegating it to the graveyard of apps it has culled. Stadia will officially shut down on January 18, 2023, just over three years after it was announced. The Stadia Store has already been closed.
How to get a Stadia refund?
If you bought any games, add-ons for those games or subscriptions (excluding Stadia Pro) from the Stadia Store, you should receive a refund automatically to the form of payment used to make the purchase. That means if you paid using methods such as a debit card or PayPal, you will receive a refund into those accounts.
In general, Google has said that customers with fewer than 20 Stadia transactions will receive one email for each refund. Those with more than 21 transactions will receive just one email detailing their full refund amount. You can also track your refunds through the Google payments centre website.
If your payment details have changed, you have two options: you can either wait for Google to email you asking for your updated payment details, or you can visit pay.google.com to view each transaction and change your payment method.
Play Store credit refunds
Notably, there is a slight issue with Play Store credit refunds affecting US customers that Google is currently working to resolve, according to 9to5Google. Those who have previously used Play Store credits (whether purchasing them though gift cards or redeeming Play Points by participating in surveys) are now either seeing thousands of dollars in credit in their accounts after receiving a Stadia refund or negative Play Points balances.
When will you receive a Stadia refund?
Google began issuing refunds on November 9, though many customers based in the US received emails on November 15 informing them that refunds were just starting. The company added that the majority of refunds would be completed by January 18, 2023.
