Google is starting to process Stadia refunds

Ahead of Google Stadia’s imminent January shutdown, Google is starting to process its promised refunds for Stadia games, add-ons, and subscription fees (other than Stadia Pro). Beginning Wednesday, Google will try to refund your transactions to their original form of payment, according to the company’s newly updated Stadia shutdown FAQ.

Watch your email to know if Google has tried to process your refunds. If you made 20 or fewer purchases on the Stadia store, Google says you’ll get an email for each of those transactions. If you’ve made 21 or more purchases, you’ll get a single email that summarizes the refund attempts.

If Google can’t issue a refund to that form of payment, the company says it will email the Google account you used for a purchase. That email will spell out how you can set up another method for your refund. If you’ve deleted your Google account, “we will still attempt to automatically refund the transaction to the original form of payment,” the company writes. And if that’s not available, the company asks that you reach out to Stadia’s customer service.

Google still expects that all Stadia refunds will be processed by January 18th, 2023, which is the same day that the cloud gaming service will shut down. That includes any Stadia hardware purchased via the Google Store, though Google’s FAQ update doesn’t spell out when the company might start processing those refunds. Spokesperson Justin Rende says the company doesn’t have “any timing to offer on Google Store hardware transactions” beyond the expected mid-January completion.