Monday, 8 February 2021

Terraria Dev Cancels Stadia Version After Getting Locked Out of Google Account

Re-Logic games released Terraria in 2011 on PC, and it has since come to almost every device under the sun — it was even available on the now-defunct Windows Phone platform. One place it won’t show up as of now, however, is Stadia. Re-Logic co-founder Andrew Spinks says Google has banned his account, locking him out of thousands of dollars in content. His response is to cancel Terraria for Stadia

It’s unclear exactly how integral Spinks’ account is to Terraria’s development, but it’s connected to the company’s official YouTube account. Spinks says his account was banned about three weeks ago for unspecified violations of Google’s terms. Even hours on the phone with the company has produced no results. This is the boilerplate explanation many people have gotten over the years, (including me – Ed) but most of them don’t develop popular games they can pull from Google in retaliation. 

“I will not be involved with a corporation that values their customers and partners so little. Doing business with you is a liability,” Spinks said on Twitter. So, fans shouldn’t expect to see the 2D action-adventure crafting game on Google’s streaming platform. This comes just days after Google announced its decision to stop developing its own games for Stadia. While Google tried to spin the news, it plays into the hands of those who predicted Google would lose focus and bail on cloud gaming. As part of that announcement, Google reaffirmed its plans to work with third-party developers to bring more titles to Stadia. So, how’s that working out, Google? 

This isn’t a good look for Google, but it’s also not a major loss. Terraria is an older game, and you probably already have at least one device that can run it. Stadia is most impressive when it’s streaming console-quality games that you can’t play without buying a console or gaming PC. 

Spinks has an ax to grind here, but his outrage apparently doesn’t extend to pulling Terraria from Google Play for Android devices. You can still get Terraria there for $5. It also exists on PC, Linux, macOS, iOS, PS4, Xbox, and probably at least one really smart toaster someplace in the world. Google has yet to respond to Spinks’ complaints, but it’s more of a PR problem than customer service now.

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