Stadia refunds start today as Google provides more details on what to expect

After the abrupt shutdown of Google Stadia in September, Google is today starting the process of refunding players for their game purchases and hardware.

Starting today, November 9, Stadia refunds will start heading out to the original transaction method that Stadia players used for their purchases. As previously detailed, this includes game purchases, game expansions, and hardware purchases such as the Stadia Controller made from the online Google Store. Stadia Pro subscriptions are not being refunded.

Google says that this process, which may take until mid-January to fully complete, will start with attempting to refund purchases to the original method of transaction. If that method is not available after multiple attempts, Google will move on to emailing those customers with instructions on how to obtain their refund. Google tells us that Stadia refunds will start with the Stadia Store, and expand to hardware purchases over the coming months. Google continues to say that it “expect[s] to have the majority of refunds completed by mid-January, 2023.”

Google notes that customer service cannot expedite this process.

Starting November 9, 2022, Stadia will attempt to automatically process refunds for all purchases of games, add-on content and subscriptions fees other than Stadia Pro made through the Stadia Store. We ask for your patience as we work through each transaction and ask that you refrain from contacting Customer Support as they will not be able to expedite your refund during this time. We still expect the majority of refunds to be processed by January 18th, 2023.

Email notifications will be provided for Stadia refunds, with customers having fewer than 20 Stadia transactions seeing one email for each refund. Those with more than 21 transactions will receive just one email detailing their full refund amount. You can also track your refunds through the Google payments center website.

On a support page, Google is detailing more FAQs about Stadia’s closure, including transferring game progress to other platforms and using the Stadia Controller wired.

More on Stadia:

• Yes, you can use your Stadia Controller wired; here’s how
• As Stadia dies, Xbox’s Phil Spencer says cloud gaming shouldn’t be an ‘either/or’ – he’s right
• Searching for Stadia: A prelude, or remembering what was lost