Google offered fans a glimpse at the future of its streaming service today during its first Stadia Connect stream of 2020.
The biggest reveal came in a partnership with Electronic Arts, which will bring five of the developer’s titles to Stadia. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will arrive this fall and unspecified Madden and FIFA installments will launch afterward. Google says it will reveal additional details on the deal, including the other two games, later this year.
Google is giving players a reason to stay subscribed to Stadia Pro as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is now available to premium users for free with cross-platform play. Other perks for Stadia Pro users is that they will receive three free titles in May: The Turing Test, SteamWorld Heist, and Zombie Army 4: Dead War.
Also available on the streaming platform today is Square Enix’s throwback role-playing game Octopath Traveler. The turn-based title released to critical acclaim on Nintendo Switch in 2018 and received a PC port one year later. The lengthy RPG has a unique “HD 2D” look and has eight characters with individual stories.
Google put a spotlight on sandbox titles that will arrive first on Stadia, including Get Packed, Crayta, and Wave Break. Get Packed is available now and features physics-based multiplayer mayhem as players attempt to streamline the process of moving from one home to another. Users will be able to create and share their games inside Crayta when it releases this summer. Wave Break is an arcade “skateboating” title releasing this summer that has players performing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater-style tricks in a watercraft.
Other titles announced to be coming to Stadia in 2020 include Ace Team’s unique tower defense racing game Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break, which releases in June, and frantic firefighting title Embr launches in early access May 21.
Throughout the presentation, Google also reminded watchers that Stadia Pro is free for two months, and paying subscribers get an additional two months of service. Subscribers get nine games with notable freebies Destiny 2: The Collection, Codemasters’ GRID, and the rhythm violence game Thumper. Users can purchase additional games individually. These will remain playable after the Pro subscription ends.
Google’s next Stadia Connect is set for this summer and will feature an update on Orcs Must Die 3.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.