Google announces more games and features on the way for Stadia in 2020

In the short time that Stadia has been officially available, there have been many announcements and new features added. As a matter of fact, in thier first community post of the year, the folks behind Google’s streaming game platform took a moment to reflect on all that has been delivered in the last couple months of 2019 before moving on to all that is coming in 2020. That list includes:

• Added more great games to the Stadia library, including six titles to Stadia Pro
• Welcomed Typhoon Studios to our Stadia Games and Entertainment family
• Updated all Chromecast Ultras so you can play Stadia on more screens
• Rolled out more features to Stadia including Google Assistant functionality and Achievements
• Delivered a multiplayer first for gamers with Stream Connect’s debut in Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint
• Surprised Stadia founders with a second buddy pass to game with more of their friends. 

With those things added and now a part of the Stadia experience, it is time to look forward to what is coming in 2020 and beyond, and this latest announcement skimps on a few details but delivers some exciting new things to be looking forward to. First up, Stadia is touting 120 games coming to the platform in this year alone. For a bit of perspective, that means an average of 10 games a month, every month, for 2020. For a platform that has 24 games right now, that is a very nice pace for addition.

Second up, they are expecting 10 Stadia exclusive games to show up before the first half of the year is done. While we only have a single exclusive title right now, an additional 10 would put us on pace for 1-2 new exclusive titles a month for the first part of 2020.

Finally, they are announcing some new features for the platform coming in the first quarter of this year. They include 4K gameplay on the web player, more Google Assistant features while on the web, more support for more Android phones, and wireless gameplay with the Stadia controller on the web. Let’s look at each one of those.

A few notes on these new features. First up, 3 of the 4 pertain to the web player, and as a Chromebook guy, that makes me happy. 4K for Stadia on the web tells me they are getting some of the early streaming quirks cleaned up and are getting things in order with what was a tad unstable at first. While I don’t plan on pushing a ton of gaming content at 4K, the inclusion of it on the web is definitely welcome and a good sign of progress.

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Wireless gaming with the Stadia remote needs to be common on all platforms, but I’m excited to be able to use it with my Chromebooks. I don’t mind plugging in the remote that much, but getting to use the Stadia controller’s unique ability to speak to Stadia servers via its own WiFi connection is a feature I truly enjoy. For times when I take my Chromebook on the go and choose to game a bit, I’ll likely still opt for the wired setup since setting up a new WiFi connection on the controller takes much more time that simply plugging in a USB C cable.

We talked about more Android phones getting included in the Stadia app already, but it is nice to see Google making this official. Eventually, Google plans to include all phones and tablets via the app, so its nice to see things already moving in that direction. Sure, a promise is nice and a few random sightings of the app working on non-Pixel phones is even better, but an official word from Google on the matter makes it really feel as if wider Stadia app support is just on the horizon.

With a ton of games on the way, Stadia Base launching soon, and multiple new features rolling out, the progress on Stadia continues to be one of the most exciting parts of the entire platform. A day will come when most of the features are there and the games we all want have made it over to the streaming service, but for now its fun to be right in the middle of this quickly-growing ecosystem as it develops right in front of our eyes.