We think it's fair to say that Google Stadia has had a rocky start. The video game streaming service captured our imagination when it was first announced around E3 last year, but its eventual launch was let down by uncompetitive pricing, and a relatively small lineup with a host of ageing games.
That could turn around in 2020, though, with plans for a massive expansion of the platform's game library.
The next 12 months will apparently see over 100 games land on the Stadia platform, as well as a handful of exclusive titles – some of which will be restricted to the premium Stadia Pro tier – and which won't be available anywhere else.
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A press release for Stadia's 2020 schedule informed us that "we are tracking more than 120 games coming to Stadia in 2020, and are targeting more than ten games in the first half of this year alone that will be only available on Stadia when they launch."
Taking on the competition
It's worth noting that both Xbox Games Pass and PlayStation Now both feature several hundred titles, so there is still some catching up to do – but any current or would-be Stadia subscribers should benefit from the big jump in additional games.
There's no information at the moment about what those unannounced games are, though: "We’re working with our partners to share more on those games soon."
Exclusives may be what decides the long-term success of Stadia, just as the Epic Games Store has found them crucial to drawing people towards its marketplace – but unless they're games people are excited to play, and not just token additions to the library, all the exclusives in the world won't convince gamers to sign up.
Other updates for 2020 include support for 4K gaming on the web, as well as increased Google Assistant functionality, and support for more Android phones beyond the Google Pixel.
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