Ubisoft hands out free PC games to Stadia customers

Google Stadia players who bought one of Ubisoft’s 37 games on the defunct platform will be granted free PC versions of those games through Ubisoft Connect, the publisher’s launcher and storefront, Ubisoft said on Tuesday.

The free games started appearing in players’ libraries over the weekend, 9to5Google reported on Sunday. The transfer depends on linking one’s Ubisoft Connect account to their Stadia account. Ubisoft’s decision, coupled with Google’s promise to refund all game and add-on purchases made through Stadia’s marketplace, means some of Stadia’s jilted players come out of the breakup with a free game.

Stadia players who had subscribed to Ubisoft Plus Multi-Access, the publisher’s library of downloadable and streamable games, will get an email with instructions for continuing their subscription through the Ubisoft Plus website, as well as a voucher for a free month of service.

Google announced at the end of September that Stadia, the game streaming platform it announced to great fanfare in 2019, would shut down Jan. 18, 2023. meaning players will lose access to any games they played there, including ones they paid for, after that date. The closure sent several developers and publishers scrambling for solutions for their players, whether in the form of transferring game saves, porting the game to other platforms, or something else.

Ubisoft launched 37 games on Stadia, by far the most of any publisher. All but six are currently listed on Ubisoft Connect; the ones missing are the party games Family Feud, Trivial Pursuit, and Uno Anniversary, and three versions of Just Dance (2020, 2021, 2022).

For those who wish to continue streaming Ubisoft games to their PC — some may not have the hardware setup to take on a 2020 or 2021 game after all — Ubisoft notes that players may continue with Amazon’s Luna platform, or through Nvidia’s GeForce Now. All of Ubisoft’s Stadia customers, whether game owners or subscribers, will get a coupon code for a free month of GeForce Now Priority.