Google Stadia is subtly reinventing itself to attract new games and gamers

Image: Google

It was a rough ride since Stadia didn't stick the landing. It feels like Stadia might be moving in a promising direction, one that gives both developers and players a reason to pay attention to. The magic word is free, and hopefully free of the hassle that made it difficult to start.

In February of last year, I wrote about how Stadia had been reduced from a game company to a white-label service for game publishers. I wrote.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with white-labeling.

Done properly, it might even unlock one of the most magical things about cloud gaming: the ability to instantly try a game no matter where you are. While companies like Google already claim games are “instantly available,” what they really mean is “after you sign up, log in, and sometimes buy a game.” That’s partly due to the complex web of licensing agreements that game publishers make cloud services sign. But if game publishers were in charge of their own games, they might feel differently. They could give you Gaikai-esque instant access game demos again, ones where you could tap a YouTube advertisement for a game and actually start playing it, no friction whatsoever.

Today's announcements point to Stadia in a general direction.

This year, the company will.

• Let any Stadia game developer offer an instantly accessible free trial of their game that will no longer require you to log into a Stadia account to play — just a couple of clicks from YouTube, a Google Search ad, social media, etc.
• Let people actually browse the Stadia store for those free trials, outright free games, and games to purchase without even needing to log into a Google account, much less Stadia
• Let developers port their Unreal Engine and Unity games to Stadia more easily, with tools like DXVK to automatically translate DirectX APIs — “so developers don’t have to modify their game renderer at all,” writes Stadia rep Justin Rende
• Let white-label partners like AT&T sign up to take Google’s technology to offer free demos and paid games of their own, a B2B offering now dubbed “Immersive Stream for Games”

GIF by Google

It's free and easy to bring your games to the cloud and put them in front of anyone. Stadia is a place to browse games you might like to try before you buy, and if you like what you see, you can continue playing it as long as you like.

Even though you shouldn't expect it, the company isn't making its own emulator to bring Windows games to Stadia. I got a peek at the presentation, and it was more of a suggestion and a lesson on how to use translation techniques.

The big question is how much of a difference there is. I don't have any experience making games between platforms so I can't comment on it, but the free trial experience for players isn't quite the instantaneous dream since you'll still need to log in to a Google account for now. Stadia is continuing to experiment with the goal of removing friction, and not having to verify a Google account would be a big step compared to Google. The more clicks the better.

It is hard to beat free.

I suppose it's not hard to find free games nowadays, as the games store gives some away every Friday. Finding a free cloud gaming PC to play on, when you only have a weak laptop or a phone, is not easy. I would have killed for that as a child.

If you have an internet connection, you can play a lot of games for free on Stadia. Today, it will bring a free timed trial of Risk of Rain 2 as well, and AT&T will soon announce another game beyond the free Batman: Arkham Knight sessions it offered last October.

I'll be curious to see if the changes will encourage companies to bring a lot more free stuff to Stadia, and if it will tie into its once-secret vision to become the world's largest.

If you're interested, you can watch the summit here.