Google has shaken up the video game industry with the reveal of Stadia, a cloud gaming platform. While we’ve been given a slow drop of technical details showing how Google Stadia will work in ideal settings, we’ve not learned much about the most important part of a gaming platform: the games. Google is teasing game announcements for the summer, though, along with a price reveal and more details for the launch later this year.
The Google Stadia social team teased the update, sharing on Twitter that curious consumers will have their wishes granted this summer. There’s no specific date or additional information beyond that and it seems strange not to mention E3 2019 if that’s when the team plans to dish out more info.
Not having a presence at one of gaming’s biggest expos on the year of launch is a huge missed opportunity, but there aren’t many opportunities to present Stadia content outside of hosting a dedicated event. Google could lock up a slot at the PC Gamer Show, but this upcoming platform is big enough to demand its own spotlight. If Google Stadia does miss E3, PAX West may be a good target to follow up the summer update. Stadia launches in the fall so PAX in September would be the perfect last shovel of coal to throw into the hype train.
The Stadia is a bold new option for gamers that releases later this year and, if it operates like the development team suggests it can, will be our first look into next-gen gaming. There’s so much we don’t know, yet Microsoft and Sony are making moves to address the slice of the industry that Stadia is positioned to snatch up.
No matter what, the details revealed this summer will be dissected right down to the tiniest morsels. Will there be a monthly subscription fee for Stadia or will gamers be purchasing games to own on the platform? Are there any major developers creating exclusive content for Stadia? Is Stadia going to be another contender for timed exclusives? There are so many questions and they will be answered in full or made at least a bit clearer sometime this summer.
