Later this year, Google is launching the cloud gaming platform Stadia and shaking up the home console market. Google has slowly rolled out info on how it could work and, now, set the stage for Stadia’s launch with pricing info, game reveals like Destiny 2 and The Elder Scrolls Online, and more ahead of E3 2019.
The first game revealed was Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 and the studio’s founder Swen Vincke shared that the development team had to triple its size to work on it. Larian elevated its profile with the tactical RPGs Divinity: Original Sin and Original Sin 2 and get a chance to take major steps forward by handling the long-awaited sequel to a beloved franchise. Baldur’s Gate 3 is also notable because it shows that Stadia is taking advantage of the recent resurgence of classic RPGs and tactical RPGs coming to home consoles. Larian Studios and Pillars of Eternity creator Obsidian have been instrumental in this and old-school classics like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment are being ported to PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One by developer Beamdog. Baldur’s Gate 3’s release date wasn’t revealed.
The next title revealed was a Google Stadia version of the recently announced Ghost Recon Breakpoint. No new information on the game itself was shown, but the reveal did end with a tease of four-player cooperative play powered by the stream connect feature. This feature allows for split-screen gaming with online companions, emulating local co-op play. The Ghost Recon Breakpoint trailer was immediately followed by the announcement of Gylt, a stealth horror game. That was followed by the top-down title Get Packed, which features four-player gameplay in a chaotic physics sandbox.
The Division 2 is also going to be one of Google Stadia’s launch titles, giving the platform a second multiplayer loot shooter alongside Destiny 2, which was confirmed as a launch title near the end of the stream. Google Stadia Pro subscribers will get Destiny 2: The Collection, which includes the base game, all previous expansions including Forsaken, the new Shadowkeep expansion, and the annual pass for that expansion.
There were additional games revealed in a montage at the end of the stream and in a splash page listing devs and publishers contributing to Stadia:
- Doom Eternal
- The Crew 2
- Samurai Showdown
- Grid
- NBA 2K
- Wolfenstein Youngblood
- The Elder Scrolls Online
- Metro Exodus
- Thumper
- Just Dance
- Dragonball Xenoverse 2
- Rage 2
- Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
- Power Rangers
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Trials Rising
- Farming Simulator
- Final Fantasy XV
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Access to Google Stadia is handled a couple of ways, and there’s a founder’s pack for the platform that will include a handful of items to get players started. Google Stadia launches in fall 2019, so there is still a lot of time left for additional launch announcements.
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