Stadia nearly doubles line-up just days before launch
Ten titles pulled forward to November 19 as Google gears up to take streaming service live
Google has expanded the games line-up for its Stadia streaming service barely 48 hours before it launches.
The firm's vice president and general manager Phil Harrison announced the news via Twitter in the early hours of this morning (yesterday evening at Google's HQ in California), saying the day one line-up of titles had increased to 22 -- almost double the 12 that was initially confirmed.
Oddly, Harrison didn't share the list of new titles and at the time of writing it's not apparent from the service's website, but the Google exec did share a document The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley posted to Twitter listing the new launch library.
It shows that Attack on Titan: Final Battle 2, Farming Simulator 2019, Final Fantasy XV, Football Manager 2020, Grid 2019, Metro: Exodus, NBA 2K20, Rage 2, Trial Rising and Wolfenstein Youngblood have all been pulled forward to November 19.
All of these were previously scheduled to launch before the end of the year, along with Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
As observed in our coverage of the original launch line-up, there is still only one exclusive title: indie puzzle adventure Gylt.
A recent Ask Me Anything on Reddit revealed that many of Google Stadia's features will not be available when it launches tomorrow. These include Family Sharing, 4K support for PC, Buddy Passes or achievements.
This, combined with the relatively low-key launch (compared to the high-profile announcement at GDC earlier this year), has led many to question Google's dedication to the streaming service and speculate whether it will be cancelled before it has the chance to gain momentum.
Our own Rob Fahey weighed up whether Stadia "is really a commitment, or just another expensive, hare-brained scheme that'll fall by the wayside as soon as the C-suite loses interest."
But Kine developer Gwen Frey recently argued in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz: "Yeah, Google's canceled a lot of projects. But I also have a Pixel in my pocket, I'm using Google Maps to get around, I only got here because my Google Calendar told me to get here by giving me a prompt in Gmail. It's not like Google cancels every fucking thing they make."