The latest Google Stadia event has brought a bevy of new announcements for the service, including exclusives and classic titles.
Google Stadia has badly needed a boost to its library, which has resulted in a smattering of new games coming to the service over the past few weeks. In the wake of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X reveals, it has been harder to get excited about Stadia and its games, especially with such a small variety of titles on offer.
Stadia is receiving a ton of new titles in the future. Stadia is receiving an exclusive title called Outcasters, which is a competitive multiplayer game starring highly-customizable vinyl characters. Orcs Must Die 3 is another Stadia exclusive that pits players against entire armies of orcs in massive pitched battles. Orcs Must Die 3 will be available to Stadia Pro subscribers as soon as the Connect ends.
Stadia is also receiving some timed exclusives. Super Bomberman R Online is going the Tetris 99 route, by allowing 64 people to play against each other in huge battles. Super Bomberman R Online is coming to Stadia first in fall 2020, and it will feature a number of skins based on Konami characters, including Alucard from Castlevania and Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. Another game that is coming to Stadia first and will be available after the Connect event ends is One Hand Clapping, which is a 2D puzzle platformer that is controlled by the player singing into their computer.
Stadia is going to adding some existing titles to its service in the future. Dead By Daylight will be coming to Stadia in September 2020, with cross-progression from the PC and Switch versions of the game. The Stadia version of Dead By Daylight will launch with Crowd Play and Crowd Choice features. Crowd Choice, a Stadia exclusive feature, will allow the community to vote and influence their favorite Youtube streamer’s match. Hitman and Hitman 2 are both coming to Stadia on September 1, and Hitman 3 will be arriving in January 2021. Serious Sam 4 will be coming to PC and Stadia in August 2020. Square Enix’s Outriders is coming to Stadia in 2021. WWE 2K Battlegrounds is coming to Stadia on September 18, while PGA Tour 2K21 is coming on August 21. The mobile stealth games Hello Neighbor is coming on September 20 and it will be free on Stadia Pro at launch, while Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek is coming this holiday season, and it will also be available on Stadia Pro at launch.
One of the biggest gets for Stadia is FromSoftware’s epic Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which will be coming fall 2020. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is considered by many to be a masterpiece (the argument over an easy mode notwithstanding), and it will be incredible to see it running smoothly on a weak machine.
Google has revealed that several companies are making titles for Stadia, including Harmonix (Guitar Hero, Rock Band), Supermassive Games (Until Dawn, The Dark Pictures Anthology), and Uppercut Games (City of Brass, Epoch). It was also revealed that The Elder Scrolls Online is leaving Stadia Pro on July 16, though it will still be owned if claimed before then.
The upcoming console generation seemed to spell the death knell for Stadia, but Google isn’t going down just yet. The Stadia library is due to receive some awesome titles in 2020, while the features promised for launch are gradually being rolled out, so the future is looking a lot brighter for the streaming service than it did before.
