AdminGoogle Stadia may be shutting down in just a few days, but that hasn’t stopped Google from releasing one last game for the ill-fated streaming device.
Now playable on Google Stadia, Worm will be very familiar to anyone who owned a phone in the early 2000s. It’s basically Snake, albeit with some modern additions like colorful visuals and multiple game modes.
If you’ve kept your Google Stadia subscription all the way to the end, you can give Worm Game a shot by switching to its Stadia page (opens in a new tab). You can even try it for free for up to three hours with the Google Stadia trial.
You may have seen the last game on Stadia today. It’s humble 🧡 thanks 💜 for playing with our team. Find it here: https://t.co/PyAUH181v1January 13, 2023
Don’t be too quick to think Google released the Snake clone as a prank, though. The Worm Game store page explains that the game was used to test many of Google Stadia’s features from its launch in 2019 until its imminent demise.
And as for Snake, the Worm game is certainly a bit more complicated than the one you run on your Nokia 3310 on long car trips to Wales. Nothing to write home about, but at least an important footnote in Google Stadia’s brief history.
A fitting end?
The shutdown of Google Stadia on January 18 is no surprise. A bizarre subscription model coupled with inconsistent streaming quality led to the device sitting lukewarm with all but its most ardent supporters.
However, Stadia was not completely without victories. I’m a big fan of Google’s excellent Stadia controller, and now that Google has finally confirmed Bluetooth support, the pad has at least been given a new lease of life. At least for gamers who want to continue using it wirelessly on PC and hopefully devices and consoles.
Unfortunately for Google, several other streaming services like GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming offer more compelling game libraries with better streaming quality. As a result, Stadia has never been able to find a sizeable and devoted audience on PC, mobile and consoles.
The streaming service itself isn’t going out with a bang, but I’d say it certainly doesn’t whine, as evidenced by the release of Worm Game. This is a game that is clearly important to the development of Google Stadia, however primitive and basic.
Whether or not Google decides to finally throw its hat back to the game streaming ring remains to be seen. But if that happens, the tech giant will do well to learn from the shortcomings of its first experiment.
