Stadia’s Shutdown Is Awful News For One Red Dead Redemption 2 Player

Based on tweet embedded below, you can probably guess why losing Google Stadia is such a big deal to Colour: the gamer had amassed nearly 6,000 hours worth of playtime in “Red Dead Redemption 2” and is alarmed by the prospect of losing his progress. In the comments underneath Colour’s desperate tweet, sympathetic users tried to come up with different ways to save his character. One user pointed out that Stadia data can be exported in ZIP and JSON formats, which means that these saves could very well be used by a PC gamer. However, Colour strictly plays in online mode, and it seems that this data is currently not going to be transferred.

No you don’t understand how seriously pissed off I am pic.twitter.com/UZ157WLmru

— Colour (@ItsColourTV) September 29, 2022

In a Google Stadia FAQ, the company explains that you may be able to carry over your progress to another platform, but it also says the following: “Unfortunately, for the majority of games, that won’t be possible.” On an upside, Google intends to refund all Stadia hardware and game purchases made through the Google Store, but it will not be refunding money spent on Stadia Pro subscriptions. While the refund is definitely a good thing for those who are eligible, the news is still bittersweet for gamers like Colour who just want to continue where they left off.

Will Rockstar Games, or Google itself, address the problem? It’s hard to say. It’s likely that Google considered this issue when deciding to sunset Stadia, so it’s possible that nothing can be done. On the other hand, seeing as Colour played online, it’s possible the character will persist on Rockstar Games’ servers. Barring Rockstar stepping in with a transfer option, however, it seems that Colour may soon lose his “Red Dead Redemption 2” progress.