Google’s Stadia game streaming platform launches November 19th, and now Google has announced the initial game lineup. It’s… not that extensive.
Customers with a Stadia Pro subscription will be able to stream Destiny 2: The Collection for no additional charge. And folks who want to buy games that they can play starting November 19th will only have a dozen titles to choose from — including Destiny 2.
The good news is that there are some popular titles on the list… and Google has revealed another 14 games that will be available by the end of the year, as well as some other upcoming titles.
But it seems like Google’s game streaming platform may be off to a relatively slow start.
That’s probably not a big problem if you plan to play games by streaming to an Android device or to a phone or tablet. But if you pre-ordered a $129 Stadia Premiere Edition bundle with a Chromecast Pro and Stadia Controller with the express intent of streaming games to your TV, I hope you’re interested in at least a few games on this list, because you may have to wait a while to play anything else.
Available November 19th (launch day)
- Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
- Destiny 2: The Collection
- Gylt
- Just Dance 2020
- Kine
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Thumper
- Tom Raider: Definitive Edition
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
- Samurai Shodown
Update: these games launch Nov 19th too
- Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle
- Farming Simulator 2019
- Final Fantasy XV
- Football Manager 2020
- Ghost Recon Breakpoint
- Metro Exodus
- NBA 2K20
- Rage 2
- Trials Rising
- Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Coming later in 2019
- Borderlands 3
- Darksiders Genesis
- Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
- Grid
Other upcoming games
- Cybperpunk 2077
- Doom: Eternal
- Gods & Monsters
- Watchdogs: Legion
Wondering what games will be available to play on launch day for Stadia? Here’s our day one lineup for November 19 with more titles coming by the end of 2019.
For the full list and additional details, check out our blog → https://t.co/CWyqjMegYz pic.twitter.com/YzhEX1d3ou
— Stadia (@GoogleStadia) November 11, 2019
It seems like people keep predicting that this project will be killed off largely because they want it to be killed off (and I can sympathize), citing the history of dead projects. But there is a problem with that. Stadia runs on custom hardware (the graphics hardware is allegedly unique anyway) so it’s more like a console, which does everything in VMs so it can be running constantly. That’s not exactly as disposable as conventional server parts are even if the only unique part is the GPU.
The question is then how far they are willing to go to make people want to use it. I try to avoid mainstream information sources because the pressure they put out is torturous to me, so I don’t have a very good idea of what exactly google’s marketing is doing about this, and I certainly don’t know how much it cost to build. But I do know that this is a service that it would be extremely easy to shame people into using verses buying a new console or building a fancy desktop. You could get 50 or more games on this service for the cost of a high end PC. The counterargument is that, okay, maybe PC gaming is obsolete (there are counterarguments but they can easily be ignored by those who don’t play games on the PC), but they still sell console games on disks, and consoles are a lot cheaper up front. In an organic setting, who wins this eternal flame war depends on three things: does stadia work perfectly at 1080p and in multiplayer, will the next gen consoles still use physical media, and how is everything going to be priced for everything? In some scenarios, it still comes in at a stalemate. But google still has something the competition doesn’t: control over the venues of discussion. Google can censor people who disagree with stadia’s rollout to varying degrees with various justifications (you might have noticed their new global terms of service regarding profitability and you?) as well as employ shills who again try to argue that you’d have to be stupid to use anything else and remember, there’s zero initial investment (next year)!
They can of course completely screw everything up. That’s always an option. But google has a very good track record of killing the competition until things settle into a duopoly or triopoly with fringe alternatives used only by freaks. When things reach a point where the only hope for an alternative is to wait for a mainstream collapse, you know your side has already lost. You’re on the wrong side of google’s history. And in google’s mind, you deserve whatever happens to you.
I wonder when (not if) Google will kill this off. I’m sure not going to bother with it.
What everyone seems to forget about Stadia is that from next year you will be able to join and play without any monthly fees up to 1080p60Hz: just buy the game as you would on any other platform and play to your heart’s content without any upfornt hardware cost or ongoing monthly fees.
Literally the only problem is: what happens to the money you spent on a game if/when Google decides to can the project?
Other than that, it is a perfect service for people who are into small, portable hardware (you know, this being Liliputing and all), and who do not have the money or inclination to invest into gaming rigs or consoles.
That is the pitch. However you’ll need a connection good enough to do this, so unless you live in the top 10 mayor US cities or in SouthKorea or Japan, this is not a solution for you. Well, at least until truly unlimited 5G dataplans don’t become available AND cheap enough.
So you have played it then on connections in smaller cities or rural areas in the US? No – of course you haven’t.
I live in Europe so I’m fine. $35ish/month unlimited traffic at 40-70Mbs. (Because in our “socialist” economy we have proper regulation of monopolistic infrastructure providers.)
They really didn’t try very hard with their launch library genre coverage huh? It’s heavily skewed towards 3D action-adventure.
Google peaked several years ago, the new stats & more importantly the stats going forward will continue to prove that. If they are not willing to keep small cheap services around, even at a loss, to keep peoples faith in their initiative. Then there is no way this service will survive long if it doesn’t see immediate success, it has to be staggeringly expensive. It will be the biggest blow yet to their reputation.
This is exactly what happens to companies when they base hiring decisions on politics over merit, you simply don’t get the best talent anymore.
‘the new stats’ – What are you talking about? And where are you getting access to ‘stats going forward’?
I’m not sure what ‘small cheap services’ you are on about but my Gmail and Google Docs are running just fine – still free.
Google Stadia. Ingredients: 25% Tomb Raider (E-cup), 16% RPG, 8% Beat-em-up (E11), 8% reason to get this (E-RDR2), 42% what even is this (E404)? Contains: salt and nuts Cooking: bring your own 500MBit optical internet and hardware, sell your personal information by using out browser (but we already know everything about you anyways, you silly goose!), log in and play!