What is Stadia as a platform? Given that Google’s cloud streaming platform is exactly that — the cloud — there isn’t hardware to sell you on. There’s that controller with a Chromecast but it’s optional so says Google. Touted as part of your Stadia Pro subscription, Destiny 2 has a possible answer: a walled garden of data centers.
We know that Destiny 2 is only implementing “cross-save” (carrying your progression between platforms) and not actual cross-play. This change is coming in time for the upcoming Shadowkeep expansion alongside the Stadia release. Today, the GM of Destiny at Bungie has tweeted out that Stadia will have a playerbase separate from the PC version.
We’ve already mentioned that we’d love to bring cross play to Destiny 2. There’s no policy or technological barrier preventing us from including Stadia. We’d be looking to include every platform. This year though, we’re focused on delivering cross save to all platforms. https://t.co/uSVLsBZt0S
— Mark Noseworthy (@knowsworthy) June 16, 2019
The cost of streaming is clear
This actually makes more sense in Stadia’s context than Xbox and PS4 having the same limitations. Playing a game on Stadia means constantly streaming from the content provider, unlike Xbox Live or PSN. The datacenters they tout as capable of streaming the games to your device belong to Google, and interacting with Bungie’s game servers is only done by proxy. However, we know that the platform’s technical viability for cross-play as advertised by Google is just not going to happen at launch.
That’s actually a major disappointment in the platform in my view. There are multiple titles by willing developers being pushed onto Stadia’s launch: nWay Game’s Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid has cross-play planned under nWay’s custom cross-play solution they even offer to license to other companies. NetherRealm Studios has comments on the possibility of cross-play down the line for Mortal Kombat 11 as well. To our knowledge neither of those games have timeframes for cross-play implementation.
I’ve heard opinions that Google should be using their wealth to push more game development specifically for Stadia, but Google should instead work towards delivering actual cross-play. Bungie is simply the first to move but there are many other developers with the capability to make the moves. It’s been far too long that Fortnite enjoys the privilege.
