Starting off today's Ubisoft Forward presentation was one of the publisher's anticipated games, Immortals Fenyx Rising. Previously known as Gods & Monsters, Immortals Fenix Rising is an open-world action-adventure game taking clear inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Unfortunately, excited players will be waiting until December to play the full game, but in a surprise, Ubisoft confirmed a special demo for Immortals Fenix Rising will be coming to Stadia earlier.
Details about the Stadia demo are currently limited. All that's been announced so far is that the demo is exclusive to Stadia and that it'll be coming to the cloud gaming subscription service later this year. The language for the announcement does imply that it's an "exclusive early demo," though, which could mean it'll come to other platforms at a later date. There's just not enough information to say that with certainty, however.
Also confirmed is that pre-orders for Immortals Fenyx Rising are now available through Stadia. The game retails for a full $59.99 price tag, will launch on December 3, and Google is also offering Stadia users a pre-order bonus in the form of an in-game quest named A Tale of Fire and Lighting. According to the quest's description, it tells the story of Helios and Phaeton. In the traditional story, Phaeton asks to drive Helios' flaming chariot, which doesn't go as planned, as most Greek myths don't.
The extent of Ubisoft's partnership with Stadia is certainly surprising, but not altogether out of the blue. For example, a major leak for Immortals Fenyx Rising stemmed from Stadia earlier this year. A listing for a game named "Orpheus" became freely available and turned out to be a demo build of the game. Ubisoft later described it as a version of the game used to show design concept to the media, but it was never intended to be shared publically.
Ubisoft is also making great use of Stadia during the ongoing pandemic. Testing games is incredibly challenging right now, given most game studios are working from home. Stadia allows Ubisoft to upload test builds of its games for testers too try from home. Ubisoft is almost certainly paying for this privilege, but an exclusive demo is probably a perk of the arrangement, too.
Expect more information both about Immortals Fenix Rising in general as well as the Stadia-exclusive demo in the weeks and months to come. A release date for the demo being perhaps the most interesting and pressing information to be shared.
Immortals Fenix Rising releases December 3 on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Stadia, Xbox One, and both Xbox Series S and X on December 3.