Some People Who Pre-Ordered Stadia Say They Still Can’t Access It [Update]

In June, Google made an enticing offer for its new streaming service, Stadia—anyone who pre-ordered the Founder’s Edition would be able to lock in the usernames of their choice before anyone else could. Now, however, some people who pre-ordered the service say they haven’t even gotten in. Instead, they still find themselves waiting for an email from Google with their login information a day after the video game streaming service launched.

“Anyone else wake up disappointed,” reads a post on the Stadia subreddit, where early adopters have spent the last 24 hours sharing their hopes, dreams, and frustrations with the service’s messy launch. While some who pre-ordered Stadia’s Founders Edition received their controller, Chromecast Ultra, and membership info yesterday, others are still waiting, either for their order to ship, for emails with instructions for setting up their account, or both.

“We’re aware that some of you who pre-ordered Founder’s Edition may not have received your invite codes in the expected time-frame,” said a Stadia community manager on the subreddit yesterday. In a subsequent update that evening, the Google representative said the problem was fixed. “We’ve identified an issue where a small fraction of Stadia access codes were sent out of order,” they said. “That has been addressed.”

Founder’s Editions were originally unveiled during a June 6 stream. In addition to a special Night Blue version of the Stadia controller and a buddy pass to get a friend signed up toStadia for free, people who pre-ordered would also get first dibs on choosing their platform name. For some, those naming rights were the sole reason they pre-ordered.

People who are still waiting on codes have latched onto a July 18 comment made by Stadia’s director of product, Andrey Doronichev, saying reservation emails would be sent out in the order pre-orders were received. But some users on the subreddit who pre-ordered in September have already received their shipment confirmation and registration emails while others who pre-ordered in June haven’t. Even if it’s only a very small number of people who are affected, the mixup has left a bad taste in many people’s mouths.

“My order has still not been shipped,” Reddit user Gamesearch56, who pre-ordered Stadia on June 8, told Kotaku in an email. If I don’t receive my code till friday, because i would use stadia on a family trip with my laptop, I will cancel my preorder. So disappointed in the whole launch.”

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[Update - 1:31 p.m. 11/21/19]: Two days after launch, Google now says that Stadia access codes have gone out to everyone who pre-ordered Stadia in June.

“We have begun moving through the sequence of orders placed on or after July 1st so that those players can join us on Stadia soon too,” the company said on Twitter.

It’s worth noting that these are only the access codes to login and start using Stadia. Actual pre-order packages, containing the controller and special Chromecast Ultras, are still in the process of being shipped.

Reddit user Gamesearch56 confirmed to Kotaku that they received their access code overnight, allowing them to finally try out the video game streaming service they were one of the first to pre-order.