Google Stadia launched on November 19 for early adopters who paid the $130 hardware kit and subscribed to the Stadia Pro subscription service, but sometime in 2020, the free version of Stadia will be available to everyone. Unfortunately, there still doesn't seem to be much reason for a majority of gamers to use Google's cloud gaming service. The 2020 lineup doesn't appear to be shaping up much better than the disappointing 2019 lineup Stadia had to offer.
In 2019, Stadia launched with 22 games and four more have since been added, bringing the grand total to 26. Of these titles, Gylt is the only exclusive and that game didn't make the waves it needed. Due to the timing of the launch, Stadia was late to the party on getting games on their launch day and there only appears to be a handful scheduled for 2020. Both a lack of exclusives and a lack of new games in general makes it clear to see how Stadia is already falling behind.
One of the biggest issues with the Stadia 2020 lineup is how few Stadia exclusives have been announced. In fact, there are only three and all of them are confirmed as timed exclusives, meaning these games will show up on other platforms in the future. Get Packed is a furniture moving co-op game that can be played online and on the couch. Another co-op game is arcade-style indie Spitlings, which is also slated for a Steam release. The final game is Orcs Must Die! 3, the third in the popular tower-defense strategy series. All three of these games are coming out sometime in 2020 for Stadia.
Historically, exclusives have been a defining factor for a console or platform's quality. Google's focus is in the cloud streaming technology powering Stadia, which is in some ways the future of gaming. However, there is very little in terms of Stadia only games to truly pique many player's interest, even if the service is free.
Stadia's 2020 lineup is strongest when it comes to new 2020 releases. That is relative, but Stadia is getting some of 2020's biggest games including Doom Eternal, Cyberpunk 2077, and Marvel's Avengers. The other six brand new 2020 releases confirmed for Stadia are Destroy All Humans!, Gods and Monsters, Baldur's Gate 3, Watch Dogs: Legion, Monster Energy Supercross 3, and Windjammers 2.
And speaking of games that are coming to Stadia after their initial release elsewhere, there are currently five planned older games coming to Stadia sometime in 2020. The 2016 Doom, The Crew 2, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, SUPERHOT, and The Elder Scrolls Online are all coming to Stadia this year. While Doom and ESO are the highest profile games on this list, the most interesting is SUPERHOT. It is a great indie game, but the Stadia release will be accompanied by the game’s MIND CONTROL DELETE expansion pack which is notably still in Early Access and currently only available on Steam.
There's some strong games in that lineup, and more are sure to come, but right now that's only nine new games. Adding to the issue is the fact that it's currently unknown which of these games will be heading to Stadia on their launch day, and that uncertainty is a recurring factor across all of Google's plans for Stadia. This lack of transparency and information makes the lineup seem even weaker if there is a chance many of 2020's most anticipated games will come to other platforms before they make their way to Stadia. Hopefully, more release dates will come out when Google announces the release date of the free version of Stadia.
Aside from a light lineup of games, it is worth mentioning how Stadia's services pale in comparison to Xbox Game Pass and Playstation Plus. Right now, Google's Stadia Pro subscription service only offers players 4K, 60fps streaming with HDR and 5.1 surround. These features also require players to have 35 Mbps of bandwidth. Google intends to eventually have a back catalog of free games included for the $9.99 monthly fee, but Stadia Pro is not strictly a subscription games service in the Netflix or Game Pass model, which again puts Google in a weak position when trying to gain a user base. Early adopters of Stadia will have to start fresh and begin a brand new game library, which currently offers a pretty limited selection.
Like with any game platform, there will certainly be more announcements for Stadia as the year presses on. But as it currently stands it is January 2020 and the date for when the free version of Stadia is hitting the market is still unknown. As it stands, on the games front Stadia 2020's lineup is weak and data cap issues are still too widespread for the streaming gaming experience to be on par with modern PCs and high-end consoles. Google is going to have to overcome a lot of hurdles to win over the larger game playing audience.