Google refunding three years of Stadia purchases starting this week

Enlarge / Stadia is circling the drain. (credit: Aurich Lawson)

Google Stadia has been marked for death, and as part of the four-month shutdown process, Google has mercifully promised full refunds for any purchased games or hardware from the moribund service. An updated FAQ on the Google support site now explains how this process will work. Google says refunds started yesterday, November 9, and the company expects "the majority of refunds" will be completed by Stadia's shutdown date, which is January 18, 2023.

Google will refund almost everything except the monthly "Stadia Pro" service fee. Here's the full refund description:

We will be offering refunds for all Stadia hardware purchases (Stadia Controller, Founder's Edition, Premiere Edition, and Play and Watch with Google TV packages) made through the Google Store and software transactions (games and add-on purchases) through the Stadia store. Stadia Pro subscriptions are not eligible for refund, however you will be able to continue playing your games in Pro without further charges until the final wind down date.

The company added that in-game currency purchases through the Stadia store would also be refunded. Notice that the above description only includes hardware purchases made from the online Google Store. If you bought a Stadia kit from Walmart, Best Buy, or even a brick-and-mortar Google Store, you're out of luck.

Refunding three years of purchases across 20-plus countries will be a complicated logistics problem. People move and change banks and credit cards, and some people even delete their Google accounts. Just hunting down everyone who ever made a Stadia purchase will be tough. The first step is easy, though: Google will "attempt to automatically refund each transaction to the form of payment used to make the purchase."

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