As Stadia shuts down, Gunsport dev finds clever way to preserve it

Google Stadia will be shut down at 11:59 p.m. PST on Wednesday, which means that, since it’s a cloud gaming service, its handful of exclusive games are about to become impossible play. Developers mark the occasion in their own ways. Q-Games sharing concept artStadia is the game. PixelJunk Raiders(and pitching the idea to other publishers).

Necrosoft Games is behind the Stadia Exclusive. GunsportBut, he had other thoughts. Necrosoft created a sort of back door in order to keep the game intact (without violating the Google terms). add Gunsport to the Steam version of its sequel, Hyper Gunsport.

Necrosoft was born Hyper Gunsport After the Stadia exclusive release in 2020, the game will be available on Steam and consoles from December 2022. An offline version is now available. GunsportSteam Version: Hyper GunsportIn the beta branch, Steam’s function to let users test out pre-release versions of games.

Necrosoft said that it had made the move “because we care about game preservation… It’s offline,And has the Stadia trappings stripped out, but at least it exists!” Saluting the game’s Stadia players, the developer said, “We’ll always have that moment we saw more concurrent players than Destiny!!!!!!”

Gunsport and Hyper GunsportRetro-futuristic games that are inspired by the past Windjammers, in which teams compete to shoot an energy ball into their opponent’s goal. “It’s cyberpunk volleyball with guns,” according to the Hyper Gunsport’s official description.

Stadia’s untimely demise demonstrates just how ephemeral modern gaming can be, and the tremendous challenge of game preservation in the current climate. We already live in a world where games evolve over time, rely on the maintenance of servers to run, and are sold as digital downloads, but with the advent of cloud gaming services like Stadia there isn’t even a download, and the code only exists on remote servers that run at the whim of the companies operating them. Necrosoft’s gesture is little more than that, a gesture, but it’s a clever one, and a welcome attempt to stop one more game disappearing into the ether.