Having watched the latest Nintendo Indie World and Stadia Connect, I’m finding myself baffled by the approach to game announcements taken by Google.
Personally, the excitement and general buzz of video game announcements, whether it’s at a conference, like Gamescom or E3, or a targeted presentation, such as a Nintendo Direct, comes from first witnessing brand new games that I haven’t seen previously. Or, in the case of the Switch, the surprise of seeing what is somehow possible on the system, when it comes to ports (The Witcher 3).
In light of this, the recent Stadia Connect felt so lacklustre. A 30 minute presentation showing off games that are either already out on other systems (Mortal Kombat 11 and Destiny 2) or that were announced at E3 a couple of months ago, or earlier, just came across as boring and non-announcements. I mean, I had already assumed that the games they revealed are coming to Stadia were coming to Stadia anyway, if the platform is to be taken seriously.
Who thought it was a good idea to hold off on revealing these games were coming to Stadia when they were first announced? If they hadn’t done this, it would’ve made Stadia feel like a key player in the industry and a real competitor to Sony and Microsoft, as it would’ve had parity with each of them on these announcements.
On the plus side, at least this Connect actually revealed a Stadia exclusive in Orcs Must Die! 3. I can’t say I’ve heard of the first 2 games in the series and it didn’t necessarily look like my type of game, but I’m sure there’s an audience for it and it’s generating some buzz for Stadia somewhere.
Hubert
SC: Agreed. It feels like we won’t truly know Stadia’s worth until more people go hands-on with it, so announcing a bunch of games, new or old, felt like hollow promises.
