Ubisoft wants to transfer Stadia purchases to PC

[Daniel Sims]

Facepalm: When Google announced the impending death of Stadia on Thursday, it promised to refund customers but didn't give developers the same guarantee. Some are left to pick up the pieces, while others pledge to help players move purchases and game progress to other platforms. Players can download progress from Google Takeout.

If you bought Ubisoft games on Google's soon-to-be-defunct Stadia platform like Assassin's Creed Valhalla or Far Cry 6, Ubisoft is trying to figure out a way to transfer those purchases to PC. Io Interactive also wants to help Hitman players migrate to other platforms.

Ubisoft promises to share more details on its Stadia migration plans and how the platform's closure affects customers who subscribed to Stadia through Ubisoft+. Purchases will likely translate into keys for Ubisoft's launcher since the company doesn't sell its recent releases on Steam.

In the meantime, users can export their progress files by logging into Google Takeout with the same account they use for Stadia. Then check the box next to "Stadia" when selecting what data to download. The data is exported to zip files users can download from an email or move to a cloud service.

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

After extracting the Takeout files locally, users will find the Stadia save files under Takeout > Stadia > GAMING > GAME_SAVE. Copying the progress data to use in local PC games means figuring out where each title stores its save files, which varies by title. The PCGamingWiki is a good resource for finding where games store progress files.

Another part of Google's game-streaming ecosystem customers would like to migrate to other platforms is the controller, which only works with Stadia currently. The Stadia controller could make a suitable gamepad for a PC or console with the right software. Some have asked Google to release a driver to make it compatible with PC, which Amazon did for its Luna controller. Other users want Google to make the Stadia controller firmware open-source so that they or the broader community can customize it themselves.

Worryingly, some developers working on Stadia games only heard about Google's decision to shut it down when the news broke publicly. SFB Games was preparing to launch a Stadia version of Tangle Tower when Google made the announcement. Luckily, that title exists on other platforms, but Google's cessation of Stadia transactions essentially wasted any resources SFB devoted to the cloud version.

Necrosoft Games was planning on recouping development costs through the Stadia version of Hyper Gunsport. Olde Skull told Axios that it could lose five figures over Stadia development for Luxor Evolved. Q-Games's PixelJunk Raiders is exclusive to Stadia, so it may cease to exist after next January if the developer can't port it to another platform.

It is unclear how Google plans to reimburse developers set to lose money from Stadia's sudden demise. However, failing to make things right could result in multiple lawsuits or class action.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/96166-ubisoft-wants-transfer-stadia-purchases-pc.html

 

[psycros]

Well of course their going to try and migrate it to their proprietary launchers. The Balkanization of gaming, just like with streaming, is probably only going to get worse. What gets me is how everyone except Google KNEW Stadia was a bad idea. Game streaming does. Not. Work. Not yet, at least.

 

[Revolution 11]

Well of course their going to try and migrate it to their proprietary launchers. The Balkanization of gaming, just like with streaming, is probably only going to get worse. What gets me is how everyone except Google KNEW Stadia was a bad idea. Game streaming does. Not. Work. Not yet, at least.

Eh, Nvidia does a pretty good job with GeForce Now, the lag was bearable in playing Cyberpunk 2077 back in Dec 2020. Google just was more crap at streaming than Nvidia which tells you how much focus Google put on the problem.

Also, Google has some very well-known organizational issues that don't help product development.

 

[OortCloud]

They wont reimburse developers, they didn't even have the decency to talk to them before canning it. Pull the plug and move on as usual. They are a class act.

 

[punctualturn]

Eh, Nvidia does a pretty good job with GeForce Now, the lag was bearable in playing Cyberpunk 2077 back in Dec 2020. Google just was more crap at streaming than Nvidia which tells you how much focus Google put on the problem.

Also, Google has some very well-known organizational issues that don't help product development.

Funny enough, the unbiased reviewers that didnt had a bias against google said, over and over, that the service was great.

Personally, I used both and stadia was way better.

But it doesn’t matter, the damage is done, stadia is dead and once again, google released something ahead of its time. Yes, it was half baked in many parts, but still.

 

[ZedRM]

However, failing to make things right could result in multiple lawsuits or class action.

Nope. The devil is in the details. Google would have had a clause in the contracts that nullified(or greatly limited) liability in the case of platform shutdown.

The controller request seems reasonable. I've tried one, very good quality and comfortable. The Ubisoft thing is a waste though..