Stadia and Google are continuing to struggle, but this time in an entirely new and unforeseeable way. Terraria, a hugely popular game of the 2010s, is no longer coming to Stadia after the developer has lost access to their Google account.
Terraria developer Re-Logic has been having problems with Google since late January, when they suddenly found themselves locked out of their Google account. The official Terraria account tweeted about these woes and trying to get in contact with Google to amend the situation on Jan. 26.
A YouTube support account responded and in the open thread, the Terraria team shared that they’d received notice of a Terms of Service violation, despite not uploading a video for several months. The notice seemed to suggest they wouldn’t receive a strike and that it was “likely accidental.” Days later, Re-Logic lost the ability to enter their account. While the Youtube account in question is still technically active, and thus the account is too, the developer still has not regained access to it.
It seems that the Google account tied to the publisher and developer is that of Andrew Spinks, the founder of Re-Logic. Losing access to the account has apparently cost Spinks “thousands of dollars of apps” as well as all of the information saved to his Google Drive account, his YouTube account, recent purchases and his Gmail address “of over 15 years.”
After weeks of being given “the runaround,” Spinks announced today that Terraria would no longer be coming to Stadia. In a thread that updated his followers of what was afoot, Spinks tweeted the following:
I will not be involved with a corporation that values their customers and partners so little. Doing business with you is a liability.
— Andrew Spinks (@Demilogic) February 8, 2021
Losing a notable game like Terraria could be a huge blow against the struggling platform, which just last week lost all its internal developers to closures and a restructuring from Google.