When Google revealed the launch lineup for its soon to be released Stadia game streaming service, people were understandably concerned; it only had 12 games, some of which weren’t all that new or even that demanding in terms of processing power, which was kind of Stadia’s whole selling point. In fact, the initial response to the Stadia launch lineup was so lackluster that Google is making a last ditch addition to the whole thing; ten extra games will now be available at launch, barely a day before said launch actually occurs.
It’s worth noting that these added games aren’t ones that weren’t part of the long-term plan to begin with; in other words, they are games that were going to be added to Stadia already, they will now just be available immediately instead of some months after launch.
The ten new games being added are:
- Wolfenstein: Youngblood
- Rage 2
- Trials Rising
- Farming Simulator 2019
- Metro Exodus
- Grid 2019
- Football Manager 2020
- Final Fantasy XV
- Attack on Titan: Final Battle 2
- NBA 2K20
Previously announced games:
- Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
- Destiny 2: The Collection
- GYLT
- Just Dance 2020
- Kine
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Thumper
- Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
- Samurai Showdown
These ten games will be added to the original 12, which included games like Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Read Dead Redemption 2, and Mortal Kombat 11. Unfortunately, the addition of these ten games doesn’t really change the fact that Stadia isn’t delivering on its main draw thus far, that being the ability to play very demanding games on nearly any device at peak performance. It’s just that many of the games they are launching with aren’t all that demanding for a decent PC rig, and some of them aren’t even that new. The addition of these 12 games don’t actually change that fact.
Still, it is nice to have a wider variety of games to choose form when Stadia launches, since there’s no real downsides to that. The only problem would be is the rush to get those games ready for Stadia presented a bunch of bugs when those games are played. But then again, as with the launch of any new platform, it’s very likely that there will be some bugs to contend with anyway, though we can probably rest easy knowing they’ll be fixed relatively quickly since Google has the reins.
That said, we can’t really say anything about how well or poorly Stadia will do until it comes out and has been tested by plenty of new players for a few days. But hopes are still pretty high for the platform in the long run; hopefully it’ll take its place in the gaming world with little trouble.