Goodbye, Google Stadia: We barely knew you. Today is the last hurray for the streaming service, and while Google’s handling of the shutdown is exemplary, any closure on this scale would have unexpected consequences. One has to do with the streamer Color, who prefers to enjoy Red Dead Online and somehow managed to put in over 6,000 hours on Stadia—and face losing everything (opens in new tab).
Their story prompted Rockstar to take action with the publisher implementing a transfer function (opens in new tab) that saw RDO players’ resources and XP linked to Rockstar Social Accounts from where they could be accessed on other platforms. A happy ending, which you usually can’t say about the Red Dead Redemption games.
The RDO streamer decided to say goodbye to their Stadia cowpoke with one last stream before the service shut down, and Rockstar delivered another surprise. The publisher sent a large box and bag filled with RDR2 goodies, all explained below.
Here’s all the merchandise unpacked! Thanks @RockstarGames for the awesome care package ✨🙏🤠 pic.twitter.com/aofUDRwzS7January 18, 2023
My main takeaway from this was realizing how slick Rockstar’s merchandising operation is: I’d never seen this before, but the official store has everything from expected to bizarre (opens in new tab). Anyone for a £75 barrel shaped candle?
The streamer’s pack included a bunch of t-shirts, 3D puzzles that make up in-game items like a sawed-off shotgun, mousepads, mugs, and, yes, the candlestick. The one thing they didn’t seem to get is actually the best item in the store, a USB charger in the form of a stick of dynamite (opens in new tab) (“Give your newly confused devices a new charge”).
One of the surprising things about Stadia’s closure is that it spawned some pretty sweet stories like this. The nicest thing, though not much use once the service is gone, is that Google released Stadia’s last game in the last few days: Which was also the first (opens in new tab).