Google thanks Stadia players with the release of the "humble title" it used to test Stadia's features
"Thanks for playing, and for everything."
Surprise, Stadia players! Google has released Worm Game, a game that "came to Stadia before Stadia came to the world".
The multiplayer arcade title became available overnight, just days before Google's innovative cloud gaming service terminates for good on 18th January, 2023.
In a bittersweet twist, this means that Worm Game is both the last game to release on the service and the first, as it was used to test features from before Stadia's 2019 launch right up until last year.
"Play the game that came to Stadia before Stadia came to the world," Google writes on the store description. " Worm Game is a humble title we used to test many of Stadia’s features, starting well before our 2019 public launch, right through 2022.
"It won’t win Game of the Year, but the Stadia team spent a LOT of time playing it, and we thought we’d share it with you. Thanks for playing, and for everything."
"Stadia is not shutting down", Google insisted when asked outright on Twitter if closure was imminent back in June. Just three months later, the beleaguered cloud gaming service announced it would close on 18th January 2023 - news even developers still hard at work on Google Stadia projects had not been expecting.
Stadia is currently refunding those who made their hardware purchases via its Google Store. Stadia is also attempting to automatically process refunds for "all purchases of games, add-on content and subscriptions fees other than Stadia Pro" through the Stadia Store, and expects the majority of refunds to be processed by 18th January, 2023.