Yesterday, we found out that Terraria developer Re-Logic and Google had a falling out that resulted in the demise of a previously unannounced Stadia version of Terraria. Re-Logic CEO Andrew Spinks explained on Twitter that he'd been locked out of all his Google accounts for three weeks with no explanation.
And we're not just talking about his Stadia developer account. Google Docs, YouTube, Gmail, Google Play apps--everything was gone. With no assistance from Google customer support, Spinks decided the only option left was to "burn this bridge."
"Terraria for Google Stadia is canceled. My company will no longer support any of your platforms moving forward," wrote Spinks. "I will not be involved with a corporation that values their customers and partners so little. Doing business with you is a liability."
Spinks has since spoken to IGN regarding Terraria's future on Android--Google's mobile operating system that's found on the vast majority of mobile devices. There are millions of Terraria fans on Android that legitimately feared their game might be removed as a result of Re-Logic’s spat.
"Punishing existing customers who paid for our game on these platforms is not what we are about," Re-Logic said in a statement to IGN. "To be clear: there should be no impact whatsoever to Terraria on Google platforms, both existing/purchased games as well as ongoing store availability."
Re-Logic also gave IGN a bit more context on what might have caused the Google situation. A YouTube alert notified Re-Logic of violating its terms of service in mid-to-late January. Re-Logic investigated but couldn't figure out what the violation was for--the company hadn't uploaded any content in months and the alert didn't say.
Google customer support wasn't able to figure it out either, and told Re-Logic that it probably "was not a major issue." Then all of their Google accounts got locked.
“Many avenues were attempted with Google in private to resolve this matter — well beyond what people may have observed on Twitter a few weeks ago," Re-Logic said. "Information has been sparse and difficult to obtain even with us being a long-standing partner.”
Google has yet to respond to the controversy.
Source: IGN