Google TV begins prominently advertising Stadia games on your home screen

With the launch of Google Stadia on the Chromecast with Google TV and Android TV, millions of additional users can now consider their home televisions game consoles without having to purchase expensive gaming hardware. I said in my overview of the update that Google could leverage the 80 million users who now have a Chromecast media streaming dongle plugged into their TVs in order to turn casual gamers into a more dedicated fan base for Stadia.

Last night, Twitter user Clive Illenden discovered that Google had begun to advertise games from the service directly on the home screen of devices. Under the ‘For You’ tab, a prominent feature banner for Destiny 2 can be seen dominating the entire screen in place of what would normally be occupied by a movie or a television show! Apparently, it doesn’t matter if you have Stadia installed on your device or not – this advertisement will appear for you, which may make some people angry, and others jump for joy.

The Stadia promo lets you hop into the game with just one click using a ‘Play On Stadia’ button (assuming you have the Stadia application installed. If not, you’ll be directed to the Google Play Store in order to install it. It also says “New | Join millions of Guardians & write your legend in the stars.” What’s really cool is that you can boot directly into any game on Stadia just by asking Google Assistant to play it as Clive has also done below.

There will no doubt be many who have a distaste for Google utilizing this banner for something other than movies and TV shows, but Stadia fits directly in with the vision that the company has had for the dongle since its inception. Gaming is now no different from the way we stream any other media in the 21st century – Aside from it being interactive, it’s gaming, but without the downloads, updates or installs, and there will certainly be many more users who will onboard with Stadia as a result of its placement on the home screen.