Games you buy aren’t going anywhere.
Games purchased for Google Stadia will not be removed from your library, even if the game is removed from sale.
Talking to IGN and UK press at Google’s offices in London, Google vice president and Stadia boss Phil Harrison addressed concerns that games could be removed from the service and prevent users who have paid for the game without the ability to play.
Google Stadia Won’t Pull Game Access
When posed with the theoretical idea of a publisher pulling support for Stadia after a user having brought one of the company’s games, Harrison responded “Yes, you will still be able to access the game.”
“Now there may be, as we’ve seen in the past, times where the developer or publisher no longer has rights to sell to new players,” he elaborated. “And that means that the game will not be available to new players, but it will continue to be available to existing players.”
Game preservation is becoming a larger concern in the games community as the industry drifts slowly closer to an era of entirely digital distribution. In the current age of download, even if a game was removed from services, it can be kept on a local hard drive for preservation. In a world of streaming, though, the end user has no capability to hold onto a game, and so it’s entirely down to the streaming provider’s policy as to if a player can access a game or not.
Google Stadia Exclusives, Price, Release Date
While speaking to Phil Harrison we also discovered that Stadia’s exclusive games will provide a new form of experience, and that Google is not worried about data caps for video game streaming. If you need more information, be sure to check out our guide to Google Stadia price, games and release date.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter.
