Posted in: Games, Indie Games, Video Games | Tagged: Andrew Spinks, Re-Logic, Stadia, Terraria

Terraria Creator Cancels Stadia Port After YouTube Channel Fiasco

Published Mon, 08 Feb 2021 07:40:31 -0600

Last updated Mon, 08 Feb 2021 10:45:25 -0600

It looks like YouTube's poor management between them and creators just cost Stadia a game as a Terraria port has been canceled. Re-Logic founder and game co-creator Andrew Spinks took to Twitter early this morning to make the announcement, primarily because Google and YouTube have made it near-impossible for him (let alone anyone) to contact them regarding channel issues. According to Spinks, back in January, he was officially locked out of the game's YouTube channel, as well as the Gmail account linked to it (which served as his primary email account) with no explanation given. Despite not having loaded a new video in over three months, it somehow received a service violation and was eventually disabled by the platform. Spinks spent weeks trying to get in touch with someone over what the violation was but apparently was given generic instructions to resolve the issue, which didn't have any information that could help him.

Terraria was on track for a Stadia port, but a release date had not been finalized. Courtesy of Re-Logic. — *Terraria* was on track for a Stadia port, but a release date had not been finalized. Courtesy of Re-Logic.

After trying his best to fix the situation, it appears Sparks has decided that working with Google is no longer an option. Overnight, he posted this series of tweets venting about the situation and letting Google know he was officially canceling all plans to release Terraria on their gaming platform.

@Google my account has now been disabled for over 3 weeks. I still have no idea why, and after using every resource I have to get this resolved you have done nothing but given me the runaround.

— Andrew Spinks (@Demilogic) February 8, 2021

My phone has lost access to thousands of dollars of apps on @GooglePlay. I had just bought LOTR 4K and can't finish it. My @googledrive data is completely gone. I can't access my @YouTube channel. The worst of all is losing access to my @gmail address of over 15 years.

— Andrew Spinks (@Demilogic) February 8, 2021

I absolutely have not done anything to violate your terms of service, so I can take this no other way than you deciding to burn this bridge. Consider it burned. #Terraria for @GoogleStadia is canceled. My company will no longer support any of your platforms moving forward.

— Andrew Spinks (@Demilogic) February 8, 2021

I will not be involved with a corporation that values their customers and partners so little. Doing business with you is a liability.

— Andrew Spinks (@Demilogic) February 8, 2021

That's a hell of a statement to issue out from a game creator to one of the biggest companies on the planet, but we can't really blame the guy. If one day you woke up and saw your primary email for all things Google-related was disabled and the company couldn't give you a straight answer why or refused to talk to you about how to get it back, you'd probably be done with them as well. Spinks' frustration speaks volumes to the consistent problems creators have had with YouTube over the years as there's no real system in place for one-on-one personal contact to resolve issues. Something that people have been begging the company to implement for over a decade, and a service that not even many of the most-watched/subscribed channels get.

Will going public about it get his channel restored and his email reactivated? Based on previous stories of this same ilk, it's a 50/50 shot on that one. Will this serve as a wake-up call to both entities and change the way YouTube operates and handles in-person help with content creators? Probably not. But considering Google just scraped their internal game development system and now relies on third-party developers and publishers to give them content, maybe, just maybe, this might serve as a catalyst for them to change things.

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