Developers look into save game transfers for Stadia owners ahead of shutdown

With the announcement of the pending shutdown of the Google Stadia game streaming service, players are set to lose all the save data for their purchased games, even if Google is going to be refunding players’ purchases. In response, many prominent developers are looking into solutions for players to transfer their save files for their Stadia purchases so that they don’t lose everything once their games are no longer available.

To start with, Ubisoft has stated that it plans on allowing Stadia owners to migrate their game library to PC. “While Stadia will shut down on January 18, 2023, we’re happy to share that we’re working to bring the games you own on Stadia to PC through Ubisoft Connect“, the company advised on Twitter. “We’ll have more to share regarding specific details as well as the impact for Ubisoft+ subscribers at a later date.”

While Stadia will shut down on January 18, 2023, we're happy to share that we're working to bring the games you own on Stadia to PC through Ubisoft Connect. We'll have more to share regarding specific details as well as the impact for Ubisoft+ subscribers at a later date.

— Ubisoft Support (@UbisoftSupport) September 30, 2022

Other developers have solutions in the works as well. Hitman developer IO Interactive has announced plans for players to continue their save game progress on other platforms post-January 18th 2023. Destiny 2 developer Bungie has also confirmed that it is working on enabling players to migrate their Destiny 2 saves elsewhere.

Google’s announcement of the Stadia shutdown was very sudden, and clearly game developers and publishers had little warning. Even developers of upcoming Stadia games were reportedly blindsided by the news. Many of these developers are owed money by Google, and are wondering if they will ultimately be reimbursed. With how abrupt the announcement was, developers are scrambling to respond. As such, solutions may not be in place by the time Google Stadia goes dark next year.

With many players having invested hundreds of hours into their Stadia library, it is understandably upsetting to see it go to waste when the service goes offline. There is no perfect solution, as allowing players to continue their progress on PC is prohibitive for those that cannot afford a PC capable of running titles like Destiny 2 or Cyberpunk 2077. Hopefully Google or the individual developers will have workarounds in place for Stadia owners to preserve their save game progress by the time Google Stadia is shut down on January 18th 2023.