{"id":115492,"date":"2020-07-16T20:57:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T20:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/366557"},"modified":"2020-07-16T20:57:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T20:57:00","slug":"stadias-click-to-play-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/07\/16\/stadias-click-to-play-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Stadia’s ‘Click To Play’ – the future?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra\u0092s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. <\/small><\/i><\/strong> <\/p>\n

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[Hi, I\u2019m \u2018how people find your game\u2019 expert Simon Carless<\/a>, and you\u2019re reading the Game Discoverability Now! newsletter<\/a>, which you can subscribe to now<\/strong><\/a>, a regular look at how people discover and buy video games in the 2020s.]<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Welcome to this week\u2019s GameDiscoverabilityLand round-up, in which I discover I have yet again found too many things to talk about in the world of \u2018how people find out about your games\u2019.<\/p>\n

Which is good, right? Lots to discuss this time, so let\u2019s get going\u2026<\/p>\n

Stadia\u2019s \u2018Click To Play\u2019 option\u2026 the future?<\/h2>\n

So, Google knows it\u2019s a marathon, not a sprint, when it comes to its initially maligned Google Stadia streaming game platform<\/a>. And this week\u2019s Stadia Connect announcement-cast reflected that:<\/p>\n

The upside: Google is starting to sign more \u2018Only On Stadia\u2019 exclusives, such as Splash Damage\u2019s Outcasters<\/a>. The company is also bringing a bunch of medium-sized or larger titles across to the platform as non-exclusives.<\/p>\n

Some of those new titles like Hitman & Hello Neighbor will be \u2018free\u2019 for Stadia Pro ($10 per month) subscribers, and others (Sekiro) are simply debuting on the Stadia store for purchase.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the \u2018click to play\u2019 concept – as an embeddable URL, which can be anywhere from YouTube descriptions to forums or beyond – that starts to get interesting:<\/p>\n

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Stadia Click to Play is now here. Click on links in the info below channels on YouTube to instant play games you are viewing via Stadia<\/p>\n

Google is the first company to introduce this although MS and Amazon are also developing #StadiaConnect<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/KIs2oAvXEM<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Piers Harding-Rolls (@PiersHR) July 14, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s an example on this Orcs Must Die! 3 YouTube trailer<\/a> that just debuted, for example – which is one of the games bundled with the Stadia Pro subscription. So if you have a Stadia Pro sub (and are in an eligible country, etc), it\u2019s literally single-click from YouTube to immediately start playing the game. Interesting, right?<\/p>\n

The jury is still out on Stadia, clearly. It has some diehard fans, but also a fair amount of skeptics, especially among core gamers who prefer the concept of \u2018owning\u2019 data on a physical PC\/console. (Whether they really \u2018own\u2019 it is another question, but you know what I mean\u2026)<\/p>\n

Anyhow, the allegations that Google might see Stadia as a foldable experiment and would cave early aren\u2019t really panning out. The company is opening new internal studios<\/a>, signing a lot of games to fill out its catalog, and starting to do bigger deals with Harmonix and Supermassive<\/a> for exclusives.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s opportunities for devs here – both in signing upfront deals with Google to have their existing games on Stadia Pro or the Stadia store, and also for exclusive games and simultaneously-timed releases. The user-base is still – shall we say – \u2018evolving\u2019, and the platform is still fairly closed compared to the likes of Steam.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not something that should be 100% ignored, and it\u2019ll be interesting to see where Stadia is in 3-5 years time. (I genuinely have no idea – tell me<\/a> if you do.)<\/p>\n

Welcome To\u2026 Devolverland?<\/h2>\n

Given I\u2019ve been hyping it, it wouldn\u2019t be a round-up without discussing Devolver Direct, the very silly indie publisher\u2019s answer to these live \u2018hype\u2019 streams we\u2019ve been enjoying all summer. The video itself is as entertaining as always:<\/p>\n

\u2026though a bit light on game reveals, perhaps. But that didn\u2019t matter, because a key reveal was a free Steam game<\/a> that\u2019s also a \u2018first-person marketing simulator\u2019, Devolverland Expo:<\/p>\n

So, there\u2019s the hilarity of the space being \u2018inspired\u2019 by the Los Angeles Convention Center – which Devolver studiously ignores every year, instead renting adjacent space and getting into fights with E3 organizer the ESA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But separately of that, this is a really well-done gag that Devolver & Flying Wild Hog put a lot of time into, and it even has Steam achievements for watching game trailers<\/a>. That\u2019s good discoverability, folks.<\/p>\n

Finally, I was reading Stuffed Wombat\u2019s genius \u2018made up game design terms\u2019 article<\/a>, and was tickled to read this one about Devolver:<\/p>\n

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Other stuff\u2026<\/h2>\n

OK, here comes both a bunch of compressed discoverability info, and some excellent feedback on previous newsletters, as follows:<\/p>\n