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Rock Band and Until Dawn Developers Sign Exclusive Deal With Google
Harmonix and Supermassive, the developers behind Rock Band and Until Dawn, respectively, are working on exclusive games for Google Stadia. Google recently offered T-Mobile subscribers a free three-month Stadia Pro subscription in its latest attempt to drum up hype for its floundering streaming service.
It’s no secret that Stadia’s first year has been beset by issues serious enough to call the platform’s whole premise into question. Some early reviews of the service were impressed with the technology behind it, but many came to the conclusion that there’s no real audience for it and might never be. In addition to concerns over data consumption and reports of overheating devices, the Stadia lacked games and the ones it had were too expensive. Things haven’t changed much in the year since then, with Google seeming to rely on announcements of big games on the horizon to woo players to the players and being met with limited success.
Along with big multi-platform releases, Google has been seeking exclusives to bring players to Stadia, promising at the start of this year that it would have more than 10 timed exclusives by this month. According to July’s Stadia Connect presentation, it’s now adding five more exclusives to its future roster, including new games from Harmonix and Supermassive. Neither developer has revealed what they’re working on for the Stadia, but their histories suggest that they will be a music title and a horror game. Rounding out the five new exclusives are a competitive multiplayer game from Splash Damage called Outcasters, an unrevealed title from Uppercut Games, and Orcs Must Die! 3, which was previously announced and is available now.
The recent Stadia Connect also brought news of more already released games making their way to Stadia. Hitman 1 and 2 are coming to the platform on September 1st, with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice following them later this year. 2K’s PGA Tour 2K21, WWE 2K Battlegrounds, and NBA 2K21 will also hit Stadia in 2020.
Existing Stadia fans - wherever they might be - got a lot of reveals for games to look forward to at today’s event, but it’s hard to see how any of it will convince new players to come aboard. Google is building the exclusive library it promised, but none of the titles announced so far seem like system sellers, even less so when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are so close on the horizon and don’t have any of Stadia’s streaming-specific drawbacks to weigh them down.
