Google Stadia begins the process of refunding your hardware and controller purchases

If you’ve been a long-time Google Stadia cloud gaming fan, you’re no doubt heartbroken at the current state of the platform. Well, what’s left of it, anyway. In January, the service is shutting down its consumer-focused games, and instead focusing on the white-label offering for B2B infrastructure. It’s a shame that no one really cares about that though.

After beginning the process for refunding all of your game and add-on purchases – a process that’s due to be completed by the time Stadia disappears into the cloud(s) – the company is now setting the hardware refund process into motion.

Many of you have already started receiving an email regarding this, and if you have, it’s strictly informational at this time. However, if you visit your Google Store purchases section, you’ll notice that the refund has been initiated. That doesn’t mean you’ll see it in your bank account right away though. In fact, hardware and software refunds are due to be completed by the same date – January 18, 2023.

With that being said, you will likely see a few bank account transactions appear periodically. There’s currently no way of telling in what order Google is processing refunds, but my guess is that it’s in the order they were purchased across all users in their system. Let us know in the comments if you’ve received a similar email and if this breaks your heart as much as it does mine.