Red Dead Online player loses horse they named after departed daughter following Stadia shutdown

Less than four years since its public launch, Google Stadia was officially shut down earlier this week. While the cloud gaming service never really took off in a widespread way, that doesn’t mean that it didn’t have its fans, and its termination has had an impact across the gaming community.

Developers’ plans for rescuing players’ save data vary from game to game - while Cyberpunk 2077 saves were fully salvageable, for example, this wasn’t the entirely the case with Red Dead Online. Back when Stadia’s shutdown was first announced, one player with almost 6,000 hours in the title begged for Rockstar to allow people to transfer their save data to another platform.

Eventually, it was confirmed that some players would be able to rescue their data, but there was a huge catch. Only those who had played the game in the 30 days prior to Stadia’s shutdown being announced were eligible, which meant that many were still set to lose their files forever. As GamesRadar+ reports, one player affected by Stadia’s closure has taken to Reddit to say goodbye to his horse, who he named after his departed daughter.

“Releasing my horse Celeste (named after my lost daughter) back into the wild as a final farewell to Stadia. Thanks for all the fun guys,” Xipos wrote, along with a clip of him setting his horse free. “Having this moment brought a lot of catharsis for me. I've never been one to really process emotions very well so shortly after everything happened I just kind of went silent and internalised for a while. This horse was the first thing I did/have done to personally memorialise her. However with Stadia shutting down it didn't feel like losing her all over again but rather setting her free and allowing her to live on in other ways.”

Others have been sending their condolences: “I’m so sorry for your loss. What a beautiful name for her. Here’s to your next chapter, partner,” wrote KruzerVanDuzer. “Thank you for sharing this with us - your tribute to your daughter is truly beautiful,” added shockandguffaw.