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Tag: stadia direct

  • Google Stadia Connect from 7/14: the good, the bad, and the less bad

    Google Stadia Connect from 7/14: the good, the bad, and the less bad

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    So let’s get the bad news out of the way…well, some of the bad news, anyway. Stadia’s refusal to state November 19th as the Cyberpunk 2077 release date all but confirms for me that the game is not going to launch on the same day-and-date as other major platforms. You are safe for now, PS4 pre-order.

    Before we go any further, please consider subscribing to this channel for more video game content. I’ve done a lot of Stadia focused content lately, and it’s been really fun. The Stadia community has been incredibly welcoming. So, I’ll probably keep doing Stadia content in addition to my normal non-Stadia content.

    Yes, the July 14th Stadia Connect has come and gone, and overall, I’m a bit deflated. The number of games was underwhelming. The type of games was underwhelming. And I don’t believe Stadia did much to expand the user-base like I think they needed to. Well, except for one important feature, which I’ll get into shortly.

    You’ll want to stick around through the end of this video because at the end I’m going to mention some viewer comments left on my predictions video from July 7th to see what people got right and what people got wrong.

    The presentation started as I thought it might, by reintroducing Stadia to the public. A succinct commercial full of game titles that us Stadia fans already know about, but the rest of the gaming public might not. This section of the Connect ended with a detailed look at the Click to Play feature. Content creators can leverage the video description to place a link that will take viewers directly to the game on Stadia to begin playing the game instantly.

    Functionally speaking, this seems like little more than a standard outbound link. Practically speaking, this could help expand the user base. If content creators place these links at the top of descriptions while streaming, viewers will see these Stadia links constantly. Multiple touchpoints increases the chance for a user to take action. The obvious limiting factor here is that the number of non-Stadia gamers watching Stadia streams is probably quite low, at least right now. Though, perhaps exclusive games will help this. Gamers who want to see what Orcs Must Die 3 is all about, for example, will have to watch a Stadia stream.

    Speaking of exclusives, we saw a few here. Super Bomberman R Online from Konami is a timed exclusive, and it looks like it could be fun. I haven’t played a Bomberman game in decades. I’m not a multiplayer gamer, but this is one that could get me to test the waters a bit. And, it’s nice to see Konami making a video game again. But don’t expect many more. They’re pretty invested in the Pachinko machine industry now. Super Bomberman R Online will be released Fall 2020.

    We got a trailer for Serious Sam 4 from Croteam, which will be a timed exclusive on Stadia and PC. This is a beloved series that I’m glad to see back. Steam shows the release date as August 2020, but for some reason the Stadia Connect did not mention a release date at all. This seems very strange, but I’ll try not to look into it. I’ve already bummed myself out by looking too much into the lack of a Cyberpunk 2077 release date.

    Outcasters from Splash Damage is a Stadia exclusive which was introduced as an effort from Stadia Games and Entertainment. This introduction addresses the confusion I had expressed in my predictions video. I wasn’t sure if Stadia Games and Entertainment was a studio or if it was a division responsible for getting games from third parties onto Stadia. It turns out, it’s the latter.

    The general consensus in the Stadia community, based on comments I’ve read online, is that while we wanted to see an exclusive from one of Stadia’s own divisions or studios, this game doesn’t seem to be the one we wanted. I did expect a new first-party game to be a multiplayer battle type game, which it is, but I, and it seems others too, wanted something grander, something more AAA feeling. This game seems like a mid-tier team-battle game with a few new mechanics. But I don’t think it’s the kind of game that will bring new people into Stadia and it’s certainly not the showpiece that will get people talking and keep them talking up until its launch in the Fall.

    Finally, with respect to exclusives, Orcs Must Die 3 from Robot Entertainment is a timed Stadia exclusive and is the only game to get officially announced and stealth-dropped today, July 14th. This is a game I’ll probably watch more than play myself—again, I’m a single player gamer—but I know a lot of people are excited for it. This game also showcases Stadia’s unique ability to have hundreds of enemies in a wave at once, which is great.

    Stadia needs games like this that showcase what’s unique to the platform. Unfortunately, this stealth-drop wasn’t so stealthy as it was leaked weeks ago. Also, unfortunately, it’s the only game that was released free to Stadia Pro members today. I was not only hoping but actually expecting at least two games to be announced and available today for Stadia Pro members.

    11 additional games and game expansions were mentioned, which I’ll run through quickly right now in chronological order according to the stated release date.

    Available in early access right now is One Hand Clapping from Bad Dream Games. Platformers are one of my favorite genres, but this game doesn’t do much for me. It uses a unique singing mechanic and I’m not a fan of scaring my family by singing to myself here in my already creepy dungeon-like downstairs game room.

    PUBG Season 8 is coming on July 30th. Neat.

    Elder Scrolls Online: Stonethorn is coming August 24th. Also neat.

    Dead by Daylight from Behaviour Interactive is a good get for the Stadia platform. Currently, the Stadia store doesn’t have any asymmetrical multiplayer horror games. And on Stadia, the game will support Crowd Play and Crowd Choice. Crowd Play is a Stadia feature that allows stream viewers to queue up to play the game with the streamer. Crowd Choice provides stream viewers with collective agency over various facets of the game. Think of it like a voting mechanism that impacts the game in real time. I believe Twitch has a similar feature currently. Dead by Daylight comes to Stadia in September 2020.

    Also coming to Stadia in September is Hello Neighbor from TinyBuild Games. Hello Neighbor is a stealth horror game with very non-horror visuals which I think makes for a very interesting subversion of expectations. The design itself plays into the very unease that a stealth horror game relies on mechanically. I’m excited to try this one, and considering it will be free to Stadia Pro subscribers upon launch I won’t have any reason not to. The follow-up prequel Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek hits Stadia in late 2020.

    Hitman and Hitman 2 will come to Stadia in September with Hitman 3 coming in January 2021. All three games are from IO Interactive. This is perhaps the only announcement in this entire Stadia Connect that got me excited. I’ve somehow not played any of the modern Hitman games despite being really intrigued by them. Also, Hitman will be free to Stadia Pro subscribers which is really smart. Build the audience for Hitman in preparation for the release of Hitman 3 in January.

    Perhaps the biggest surprise in this Stadia Direct was the announcement that Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice from FromSoftware will be coming to the platform. FromSoftware are the people behind the Dark Souls games and Bloodorne. The arrival of Sekiro is a good thing for a couple of reasons.

    Firstly, because the game won tons of awards last year including Game of the Year at The Game Awards, this game brings further legitimacy to the Stadia platform. Second, because FromSoftware games are so heavily dependent upon perfect timing combat scenarios, this could be another game to showcase the surprisingly low lag with Stadia. Doom Eternal showcased the speed and fidelity. PUBG showcased Stadia’s capacity for twitch shooters in a multiplayer arena. Sekiro will showcase how the platform has come close to eliminating lag.

    Lastly, with no release date mentioned in the Stadia Connect but with other sources mentioning December 2020, we have Outriders from People Can Fly. This game looks to be more my style than almost every other game included in the Stadia Connect. A post-apocalyptic, action shooter with a single player campaign and RPG elements? Yes please.

    And that’s all we got from the July 14th Stadia Connect.

  • What will be shown at the next Google Stadia Connect (7-14-2020)?

    What will be shown at the next Google Stadia Connect (7-14-2020)?

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    The next Stadia Connect is coming up on July 14th and, not to put too much stress on Google, it has got to be a big presentation. If Stadia wants to compete in the market against two brand new consoles (4 consoles if you count digital editions from the legacy players in the space, Microsoft and Sony) then a misstep here could reverberate for a long time.

    So, what should we expect from the July 14th Stadia Connect?

    As far as what we should realistically expect, I’ll start with what the official marketing materials say. The Summer Game Fest twitter account notes that we should expect “a look at some of the games coming this year,” and “a few surprises.” The official Stadia Twitter handle says simply “Join us for a look at some of the games coming to Stadia later this year.”

    Of course we should expect games. I anticipate we’ll actually see quite a few games announced. We likely won’t get the barrage of 60 games we saw with Xbox’s E3 2019 presentation, but we should get at least 15 announcements with dates and possibly another 15 mentions of upcoming games. And, as Stadia’s tweet implies, I’m hoping for a lot of 2020 release dates.

    Currently, Stadia has about 59 games available for purchase with 26 announced but not yet released. This means that if Stadia wants to fulfill the statement they made in January that they were bringing 120 games to the platform this year, they’d need to no only release all 26 that they’ve announced, but also announce and release 15 more. This feels doable, and I would love for all 15 of those to be announced at this next Stadia Connect.

    Ryan McCaffrey from IGN spoke with Jerome Jones at Robot Entertainment and Marc-Alexis Cote from Ubisoft in a June 18 discussion as part of IGN’s Summer of Gaming, so it’s reasonable to suspect we’ll get more from Orcs Must Die 3 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Though, when it comes to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, I doubt we’ll be getting any exclusive news. Though Ubisoft and Stadia seem to be close partners, Ubisoft will probably save exclusive details of one of their biggest franchises for an announcement with a platform that has a much larger user-base.

    What about exclusive games, other than Orcs Must Die 3. Well, Stadia currently owns three studios, I think. I say “I think” because one of the studios is Stadia Games and Entertainment, which may not be a true studio. It might be more of an internal division focused on getting games to the platform, which may mean development or it may mean working with 3rd parties. The details around Stadia Games and Entertainment aren’t clear.

    Stadia also launched a studio in March of 2020 led by former Sony Santa Monica head Shannon Studstill. And, I sometimes forget, Google purchased Typhoon Studios, who made last year’s surprisingly awesome Journey to the Savage Planet. Surprising because it is their first game and it is really, really fun. It’s the Metroid Prime game to hold us over until Metroid Prime 4. I have a video review of Journey to the Savage Planet, linked here, if you’d like to check that out.

    So that’s 3, possibly 2, first party studios. What are they working on? I expect we’ll find out even if we don’t get very many details.

    Also, I do think we can expect some Cyberpunk 2077 mention, even if as only a way to remind the public that Stadia is getting this highly-anticipated game.

    I don’t believe the game will be hitting at the same time as other platforms, unfortunately, so I doubt we’ll get a specific release date. Otherwise, if we did get a specific release date, headlines will leverage those two dates, with Stadia’s being later, as just another occasion to dump on Stadia. Google doesn’t want that. However, if the Stadia release is just a couple weeks later than other platforms, maybe we’ll get a release date. But my guess is that we’ll be waiting months longer than other platforms for Cyberpunk 2077 to be released on Stadia.

    Besides, if the release date of Cyberpunk 2077 was going to be on the same day as the other major platforms, we would have known that by now. Google would love to promote a same-date release.

    Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed twice already, keep in mind. Some people suspect that the second delay is more about marketing than development, as in CD Projekt Red are wanting to pair Cyberpunk 2077 with the launch of the new console generation, but assuming that’s not true, if a studio is pushing back development on Playstation and Xbox versions of a game, they are doing so at the expense of any other platform. That’s just business. Prioritize the biggest user base. But I would love to be wrong. If Cyberpunk 2077 released on the same day as other platforms, I would be overjoyed.

    Let’s dissect this same-date release concept for a bit. Why is that so important? If Stadia can release a big budget AAA game on the same day as other platforms, most importantly for this conversation, Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X, that does a few things:

    1. it shows legitimacy. It shows that Stadia can no longer be tossed aside as an irrelevant product like a lot of influencers and some games media like to do.
    2. It may siphon some sales from other consoles. This allows sales charts to possibly show Stadia sales as more than just part of the chart label of “other.” Realistically, sales would still be far less than the established consoles, but even just to see the name Stadia alongside Playstation and Xbox in various marketing and sales charts could help with perception of value. Though I understand it could have the opposite effect and show just how dramatically different the sales of each of those platforms is, with Stadia being a minuscule piece of that chart.
    3. the gamer/marketers, those who play and promote games, would be able to evangelize for Stadia and its benefits, specifically its no-downloads feature. Currently, industry publications and well known influencers get early copies of most games so that reviews and footage can be released day-one. Stadia needs to be a part of that. But also important, I’d argue, is the ability for consumers level gamer/marketers, that’s the people like me who play games and create media about games for a small audience, if those people could access Cyberpunk 2077 at 12:00am, and begin streaming within 30 seconds, no downloads, no patches, then Stadia player footage would be some of the earliest player footage. Cyberpunk 2077 will have pre-load functionality on Playstation and also assumedly on Xbox, so having Stadia footage alongside those consoles again shows legitimacy. Youtube algorithms like early coverage, so this could be a way to showcase not only the performance and fidelity of Stadia, but also its near-instant start times.

    So though I don’t believe at all that Cyberpunk 2077 will be this same-date release game that Stadia needs, Stadia will need such a game soon. It’s happened before, with the most high-profile instance being Doom Eternal which was released on all major platforms, including Stadia, on the same day. But that was back in April 2020. Google needs to continue working to clean the residue from its poor launch and find the next same-date release game. Maybe that will get announced at this Stadia Connect.

    Outside of games, I expect the overall delivery of the Stadia Connect to feel a lot like a commercial rather than a celebration of games as we might expect with established platforms like Playstation and Xbox. Sunny Cloud Gaming made a great point with his predictions video. Because the Stadia Connect is part of Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest—which for all intents and purposes is this year’s closest E3 replacement—this Stadia Connect will not have just the Stadia-loving audience, but will be exposed to the wider game-buying public. Because of this, I think Stadia will be trying very hard to re-introduce itself as a service worthy of the casual gamer’s living room. We’ll probably hear a lot about the free tier of the service, now just called Stadia, and the paid level of service, the Stadia Pro subscription. I anticipate we’ll hear a few times some variation of the phrase “you don’t need to buy a next gen console to play next get games.” For Stadia fans like us, this will probably sound like old news, but remember Stadia is needing to re-introduce itself to a lot of gamers out there.

    The truth is Google still has some Public Relations injuries to massage out. At the initial Stadia announcement and the November 2019 presentation, I sensed gamers became a bit defensive. There was a sense that this mega corporation was trying to buy its way into our living rooms without having to slowly build the audience that Sony and Microsoft had to do. Yes, Sony and Microsoft were mega corporations at the time that they entered the console space, but the space was smaller then. There was room for optimism and excitement.

    As for the “few surprises” that the Summer of Games tweet references. I imagine there may be some game release surprises. Maybe some games released the day of the Stadia Connect. But I think more realistically, the surprises may have to do with long-promised features. State Share, the feature that lets users share URLs that bring other players into an instance of their game, is currently being beta tested with Crayta. I’d like to see a surprise rollout of that functionality. Crowd Connect, Youtube Streaming, and full In-Game Google Assistant functionality (emphasis on “full”; I know some Google Assistant functionality is available now), these are all features we haven’t yet seen. Because these have already been announced, they may not count as surprises, but for me, these would be welcomed announcements.

    Speculated features include Android TV support and Demo functionality for all games. Those would be surprises as well, but I wouldn’t expect any announcement at this time.

    As for what I personally want to see. Simply put: I want to see a killer-looking, single-player, first party exclusive to be released this year. I don’t think it will happen. My bet is that Stadia is going to lean heavily into multiplayer games as it tries to grow its user base. Multiplayer games allow for a better showcase of the unique Stadia features, including State Share, Crowd Connect, and of course the promised ability to play battle royale scenario type games with hundreds of players. I much prefer a single-player game, but Stadia isn’t just for me, and I understand that.