As a thank you to Google Stadia users, in the last days of the service’s life, Google is releasing one last exclusive game.

Less than a week before Google Stadia shuts down, one last exclusive game has been released for the platform. Only a handful of exclusive games have ever come to Stadia, some of which won’t leave the service before it shuts down.

Stadia is Google’s soon-to-be-defunct game streaming service that launched in late 2019 to mixed reception. As Google’s response to the rise of game streaming, it has enabled users to play online streamed games on their devices. Its structure was similar to services such as Amazon Luna or Xbox Cloud Gaming, but it never achieved the success expected of it. Last September, it was announced that Google would shut down the service in January 2023, and they began processing Stadia refunds shortly after.

As expected, it’s been mostly quiet on the Stadia release front since the announcement of Stadia’s shutdown, but a surprising discovery from the Stadia team has broken the silence. Google Stadia’s Twitter account has announced that Snake-like Worm Game will be released on January 13th, which will likely be the last game to come to Stadia. While some Stadia-exclusive games have been announced for other platforms, it looks like Worm Game won’t be playable until January 18, 2023 at 11:59 PST.

You might have seen one last game arrive on Stadia today. It's a humble 🧡 thanks 💜 for playing from our team.

Find it here: https://t.co/PyAUH181v1

— Stadia ☁️🎮 (@GoogleStadia) January 13, 2023

Worm Game’s Stadia page explains that the “humble title” was used internally for testing purposes during Stadia development and has remained in use ever since. It’s always been viewable and playable only among the team, but it was released less than five days before the end of the service to thank users. Players can still play the game for free for 180 minutes, whether using a keyboard, a Stadia controller, or another gamepad. Stadia fans gathered with bittersweet remorse at the responses to the announcement that the last dance of the service would be the one that was part of Stadia long before its 2019 launch.

Google Stadia never quite lived up to the expectations many believed it would, but it still had a passionate fan base. There were plenty of players who found value in what Stadia had to offer, a famous example being the Red Dead Online player who spent over 6,000 hours on Stadia. Google Stadia won’t be missed by most, but it will go down as an important springboard in game streaming history that future cloud game developers will never forget.

Worm Game is available on Stadia until Stadia closes on January 18, 2023.

Source: GameRant