Fall Videogame Preview: 30 Most-Anticipated Games

Launching (partially) this November, Google's newest service is being positioned as an alternative to Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC gaming. The cloud-based Stadia will still require you to purchase games individually—it's not a "Netflix for games," though there will be an optional monthly subscription service that includes a few free titles—but you can play them on virtually any device you already own, including your phone, a web browser, and on your TV through Chromecast. (For the latter, Google is selling a compatible wi-fi controller.) Google provides the computing horsepower, and you provide the bandwidth—there's no need to download or install anything. (Whether your connection is truly good enough to consistently stream 4K games is another matter, though if anyone can get around the technical limitations inherent to streaming games, it's probably Google.) Note that the cheaper, non-subscription version of Stadia isn't expected to arrive until next year.

The platform could have at least one exclusive game at launch: Gylt, a puzzle adventure which comes from the studio behind RIME. Otherwise, the Stadia launch lineup could include new fall titles like Borderlands 3, Doom Eternal, and Ghost Recon Breakpoint as well as slightly older games like Destiny 2, The Division 2, Rage 2, Metro Exodus, The Elder Scrolls Online, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Microsoft is developing its own competing cloud-based gaming service, xCloud, though the full service won't arrive until next year at the earliest. But when it launches, it should have one key advantage: an enormous library of titles. xCloud will have every single Xbox One game available to stream, rather than Stadia's much more selective list.