Google almost doubles the number of games coming to Stadia’s launch line-up 

Just hours before its official launch, Google Stadia has almost doubled the number of games coming to the streaming service on launch day.

“Excited to announce that we are INCREASING the Day One launch line-up of titles for @GoogleStadia – we now have TWENTY TWO games launching with the platform on Tuesday,” tweeted Stadia boss Phil Harrison. “Huge thank you to our game developer and publisher partners for bringing more titles.”

Excited to announce that we are INCREASING the Day One launch line-up of titles for @GoogleStadia – we now have TWENTY TWO games launching with the platform on Tuesday. Huge thank you to our game developer and publisher partners for bringing more titles #stadia

— Phil Harrison (@MrPhilHarrison) November 18, 2019

Initially, there were just 12 games available on launch day. Now, 22 games are lined up to be available tomorrow, with just one of them, Gylt, a Stadia exclusive. Others include Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Red Dead Redemption 2, Destiny 2, Just Dance 2020, Rage 2, and Wolfenstein: Youngblood.

Borderlands 3, Darksiders Genesis, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Final Fantasy XV, and Football Manager 2020 are slated to release by the end of the year. Samurai Showdown will seemingly join Destiny 2 as a “Stadia Pro” perk.

Just days before its launch, Google confirmed a number of key features originally detailed to early adopters of Google’s streaming subscription service will now be delayed. Further to a Reddit AMA with Google’s Andrey Doronichev and Beri Lee, it appears Stadia’s Founder’s Edition will now launch without achievement notifications, family share, or 4K streaming for PC. It’s also been confirmed that the much-publicised Buddy Pass – which enables players to gift access to a friend – will be delayed for approximately three months. 

Early adopters will not be able to use their official Stadia controller on their PC or phone wirelessly, nor use their official Stadia controller with any currently owned Google Chromecast Ultra. They will also be unable to play games in 4K/HDR/5.1 “on any device other than your TV with the Founder’s Edition Chromecast connected”. Support for 4K streaming on PC is expected to follow in 2020.

Though available, you won’t see achievement pop as they’re unlocked as the UI that displays achievement notifications won’t be available until “shortly after launch.”

While Family Sharing is considered a “high priority” for players, right now there’s no way to enable parents to share games with an associated child’s account – which means families hoping to play together over the holidays will have no choice but to buy additional copies of games to play (or buy them on a different platform entirely, of course). 

Google revealed details about Stadia’s launch at E3 2019. Launching in 14 countries in November 2019, initially, it will only be available as a £9/$10/€10 per month subscription called Stadia Pro, which will provide 4K/60fps streaming, along with a catalogue of existing titles – much like Xbox Game Pass. Subscribing will also give full access to Destiny 2 and all its content, though that’s a limited time offer.

A service with no monthly fee, called Stadia Base, will launch sometime in 2020, without any library of content. This service will be limited to 1080p streaming. Bandwidth requirements start at just 10mbit/s download and go up to 35mbit/s for the full experience. Both services will require consumers to outright purchase new releases in order to play them, presumably at typical retail prices through a Stadia store (though as yet this hasn’t been detailed).