The Announcement

Last night, Phil Harrison, a general manager at Google, revealed the catalog of Google Stadia games available at launch. Although Google has closely held this information, the company proudly announced that it would make 22 games available on November 19.

Excited to announce that we are INCREASING the Day One launch line-up of titles for @GoogleStadia – we now have TWENTY TWO games launching with the platform on Tuesday. Huge thank you to our game developer and publisher partners for bringing more titles #stadia

— Phil Harrison (@MrPhilHarrison) November 18, 2019

The List

The full lineup at launch includes the following games:

1. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
2. Attack on Titan: Final Battle 2
3. Destiny 2
4. Farming Simulator 2019
5. Final Fantasy XV
6. Football Manager 2020
7. Grid 2019
8. Gylt
9. Just Dance 2020
10. Kine
11. Metro Exodus
12. Mortal Kombat 11
13. NBA 2K20
14. Rage 2
15. Rise of the Tomb Raider
16. Red Dead Redemption 2
17. Samurai Shodown
18. Thumper
19. Trials Rising
20. Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Analysis

While the list includes many popular titles, fans should be skeptical of the new Google Stadia games catalog. Mainly, we at GamingROI have the following concerns:

• While the launch lineup includes many popular titles, only one Google Stadia launch game is on the list of Top 10 best-selling games for October 2019: NBA 2K20.
• Overall, only three Google Stadia launch games are in the Top 20 best-selling games for 2019: NBA 2K20, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Mortal Kombat 11.
• While Google Stadia offers a unique streaming service, the worldwide console market is saturated with the PlayStation 4, XBOX One, and Nintendo Switch. These systems account for nearly 200 million users worldwide.

Conclusion

While Google Stadia offers many benefits over the console market, the games available at launch titles is mediocre at best. Popular titles missing from the lineup include Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019, The Outer Worlds, Madden NFL 20, and FIFA 20. While Google Stadia’s success is likely dependent upon future game releases, fans are likely not clamoring to stream video games via Chromecast. Time will tell if Google Stadia succeeds, but the launch lineup leaves much to be desired.

But we want to know what you think. Are you excited about the launch of Google Stadia? Will you purchase a content pack on day one? Let us know in the comments below or the social media links on the right. Be sure to check out our other news items on Modern Warfare, Capcom, Blizzard and more. Until next time. Enjoy!