Google Stadia players who purchased one of 37 Ubisoft games on the defunct platform will receive free PC versions of those games through Ubisoft Connect, the publisher’s launcher and storefront, Ubisoft said Tuesday.
Free games began appearing in gamers’ libraries over the weekend, 9to5Google reported on Sunday. The transfer depends on linking one’s Ubisoft Connect account to their Stadia account. Ubisoft’s decision, coupled with Google’s promise to refund all game and add-on purchases made through the Stadia marketplace, means that some of Stadia’s abandoned gamers are coming out of the break with a free game.
Stadia players who have subscribed to Ubisoft Plus Multi-Access, the publisher’s library of downloadable and playable games, will receive an email with instructions to continue their subscription via the Ubisoft Plus website, as well as a coupon for one month of free service.
Google announced in late September that Stadia, the game streaming platform it announced to much fanfare in 2019, would be shutting down on January 18, 2023, meaning gamers will lose access to the games they played there, including that they paid, after that date. The shutdown sent several developers and publishers looking for solutions for their players, be it in the form of transferring save games, porting the game to other platforms, or something else.
Ubisoft released 37 games on Stadia, by far the most of any publisher. All but six are currently listed on Ubisoft Connect; the ones that are missing are the party games Family dispute, Trivial pursuit, Y one Anniversaryand three versions of Just dance (2020, 2021, 2022).
For those who want to continue streaming Ubisoft games to their PC (after all, some may not have the hardware setup to take on a 2020 or 2021 game), Ubisoft notes that players can stick with Amazon’s Luna platform. or through Nvidia’s GeForce Now. All Ubisoft Stadia customers, whether game owners or subscribers, will get a coupon code for a free month of GeForce Now Priority.