Google Stadia dropped a live stream today to discuss the future of the platform. It’s also been no secret that Google Stadia has been struggling hard and the stream went on without addressing it, leaving fans to wonder if Google has heard their cries for exclusive new games and updates to the service. While this stream does help with filling out Stadia’s third-party library, they still haven’t looked to address many of the other lingering issues with the service and only mentioned one less than impressive exclusive being added to the platform.
Phil Harrison opened the stream with talking up Google Stadia in the way he always has, addressing the fact the team has been operating at home due to the Co-vid19 pandemic. He continued to talk about how revolutionary the platform it, despite it really not being that. They really kept hammering home the “no downloads or updates” features, but honestly, with SSD Hard Drives being a thing in Next-Gen consoles, that feature is going to sound less impressive as time goes on. There was also a video reel of some customers talking up their love of the service, with one line that had me laughing; “I can’t imagine playing games any other way.” a line that makes zero sense since “any other way” has been the norm for the past several decades and is clearly imaginable.
Phil continued with talking about how the service is now live for 14 countries with a 2-month free subscription. They also finally talked about how Google Stadia is not a Netflix for games, something that was heavily conceived at what Stadia was for several months into the service being live. They went into detail about how the games are purchasable from the store with a small selection being available to play for free with your Pro subscription. It was nice for them to finally talk about this and is bizarre that their wording for this wasn’t more clear early on.
While there were a few “first on Stadia” games announced, meaning they will entertain a timed exclusive window on the platform, there was only one single announcement today of an exclusive title on the service. But anyway, here is a list of what was announced.
Star Wars: Fallen Order
Madden 21
FIFA 21
Doom Eternal was shown off, likely as a way to show that a big AAA game is on the service. It’s also worth noting that the game does not run at 4k, and is instead upscaled to 2160p instead.
Octopath Traveler, formally a Nintendo Switch and Windows exclusive, will see an upcoming release on the platform. This was honestly the only BIG game to see a release considering it is not available on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
Rock of Ages 3
Crayta, a co-op game building experience exclusive for Google Stadia
Wave Break, a Jet-ski-skateboarding racing game.
Ember, a fire-fighting sim with a splash of humor.
Get Packed, a blatant rip off of Moving Out, launched on the platform today.
PubG, the battle royal game that is still somehow alive and kicking is releasing on the platform today.
and finally, Orcs Must Die 3.
Google Stadia Pro, their paid tier for better framerate, resolution, and free games will see the following titles added to the premium tier:
Turing Test
Steamworld Heist
Zombie Army 4
They also mentioned that this summer, another Google Stadia Connect live-stream will show off more games that hit the platform. It’s unfortunate that no tech specs were mention in regards to what games are running in 4k, or if previously released games like Doom: Eternal will get upgrade patches to actually run in 4k. Either way, it’s nice to see Stadia get more games, it’s just a shame we still don’t have any real compelling releases to dive into the service. Frankly, I don’t see Stadia really being a major contender, at least yet, or taken seriously until it really starts to flood its library with engaging gaming experiences that you cannot find anywhere else and promising that highest graphical fidelity experience they bragged about during their launch event. As of right now, the service is still showing noticeable lag and a truly lacking catalog of new and exclusive gaming experiences. Google Stadia sold itself on being the next big thing in gaming but has so far been a joke across the industry, with several developers saying they have no intention of putting their games on the service until they have a compelling reason to do so.