Google has released one last game on Stadia just days before the service's pending January 18 shutdown, and it's one of the first titles ever developed for the platform.
Worm Game, a simple arcade game apparently equipped for single player as well as online multiplayer, is now available to try on Stadia, though obviously you only have a few days to play it. Despite being the last game to come to the dying platform, Worm Game actually predates Google Stadia entirely, and was even formative to its release.
"Play the game that came to Stadia before Stadia came to the world," Google says on its store page. "Worm Game is a humble title we used to test many of Stadia’s features, starting well before our 2019 public launch, right through 2022. It won’t win Game of the Year, but the Stadia team spent a LOT of time playing it, and we thought we’d share it with you. Thanks for playing, and for everything."
It's ironic to think that the last title to hit the platform is technically a first-party game, given that a lack of exclusive hits, as well as unique games that really leverage its cloud tech, was a big part of what hurt Stadia. In February 2021, Google closed studios working on first-party Stadia exclusives, and the service has been circling the drain ever since (and arguably was even before that point, to be fair).
Stadia fans and developers have been mourning its imminent shutdown (and fleeing the sinking ship via lifeboat) for some time. Despite its struggles, Stadia did find a small audience that played and enjoyed the heck out of it, and they're having a hard time letting go.
Just this week, Destiny 2 players captured the MMO's final moments on Stadia.
