Google announced new information about their streaming service Stadia last night. Rockstar is said to be collaborating with Stadia among other things. However, no game was mentioned. Will Google’s Stadia Red Dead Redemption 2 finally come to PC?
What is it about? On June 6, Google unveiled details about their upcoming service Stadia in a livestream. 28 games are said to be supported at the launch of Google Stadia, as announced during the stream.
However, observant viewers may have spotted additional logos from studios and publishers, even though none of these games were presented yet. The logos of Rockstar, Capcom, and Electronic Arts were also seen in the stream, marked with an asterisk indicating that these publishers can release their content at their discretion.
In Rockstar’s case, this could mean that GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, or even the predecessor Red Dead Redemption, might be released via Google’s Stadia. Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2 are not yet available for PC, but could potentially be played on PC with Google’s upcoming service.
What is Stadia? Google Stadia is a gaming platform that can be accessed through various channels, including PC browsers or mobile devices. Google is foregoing hardware like Xbox One and PlayStation 4, intending to stream current games directly from the cloud to various devices.
Google Stadia is set to launch in November 2019. You can find more information about the service here:
- Google Stadia Pro costs €9.99 – Is the pre-order for €129 worth it?
- No, Google Stadia is not Netflix for gamers
PC release “no disadvantage”: At an investors’ conference last weekend, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick stated that a PC release of Red Dead Redemption 2 would be a “layup.” This is a basketball metaphor for something that is easy to accomplish.
Zelnick further explained that there would be “no disadvantage to releasing the game on PC.”
However, he had no further comments on this topic. Zelnick often receives questions about the PC release of RDR2, but usually dodges them.
Why is there still no PC release? Even before the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in October 2018, there were ongoing hints and rumors about a PC release. For instance, placeholder listings for a PC version of RDR2 were found at retailers, and a former programmer claimed to have worked on a PC version of the game.
Only in May did the LinkedIn profile of a former employee of Rockstar Toronto emerge, who also claimed to have worked on a PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2.
