Google Stadia Exclusive Games Revealed - Ultimate Guide

Recently the technology giant Google announced to Stadia, its Cloud Streaming service for multiplatform videogames, during an opening speech of the GDC 2019 held this week. In this speech, Google Vice President Phil Harrison revealed some details about the service, although many more were kept secret.

All the details that were revealed were very interesting. However, there was one of them that I call particularly the attention of the community, and it was with respect to the "exclusive games" for the Stadia service. This, of first impression, made think that only games would be available that only were to be developed for Stadia, as well as the fact that there would not be available games that were not developed for Google.

These interpretations were put in a better context during an interview given to him by Phil Harrison, after the GDC 2019 speech. In that interview, he stated that the point of reference was regarding what should have been done to make the promise of the Stadia project, which was to create games with their own experiences and that were compatible with their platform, that is, they are designed "specifically for your data center". He also mentioned that it was fine if the developers who design games for Stadia, also distribute them so that they are available on other streaming platforms.

This was part of what Google Vice President Phil Harrison said during the interview, alluding to the subject: "It was a conversation I had with the leadership of Google before joining the company" ... "[My] point of view was to really fulfill the promise of this platform, we had to build our own games, we had to build our own experiences, and that was a very fundamental strategic direction that we needed to move forward ... "I understand that [for a player] the word 'exclusive' sometimes it can be a challenging terminology ... [I'd like] I would prefer that we move the narrative towards games that are specifically designed for a data center. And if those games are also on other broadcast platforms, that's fine, because what it means is that the developers are starting to innovate and think about the future and [build] a 21st century game, instead of a century game XX ".

With this, Harrison makes clear that with "exclusivity", Google wanted to refer to the design of games specifically for its transmission platform by other developers. In other words, if they will admit games that are not developed by them.

During his speech at GDC 2019, Google also announced that they have a new development studio called "Stadia Games and Entertainment" headed by the former head of Ubisoft and EA Jade Raymond. In turn, he mentioned that one of the objectives of the study was to "share tools and technologies to eliminate the limits". The latter may mean that, of course, they will work with other developers, as well as encourage innovation, confirming what Phil Harrison stated in the interview.

In this same sense, Phil Harrison also expressed that the videojuegos designed by Google, will only be available in Stadia (there is the "exclusivity" that everyone speculated).

During the interview, he also took advantage of asking Mr. Harrison about pricing models for Google's Stadia service, since one supposedly has one. However, the Vice President of Google only said he was not ready to talk about it yet.

In the absence of information, Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot, believes that for the Stadia service, Google will present a series of price models. Among the hypothetical cases that I mentioned, would be the purchase to play the game completely, registering to play for certain time intervals, among other things. "Or buy the full price and play, or you can also register, possibly, to play an hour or two hours a day, there will be many ways," he said.

Among other details, Phil Harrison made the confirmations that Google will never admit downloads without connection in Stadia, under the argument that "it is not technically possible" (which sounds logical, at least for now.) However, the background may be that it is not economically viable for the service, obviously).