Project xCloud has taken away some Stadia’s momentum
Yesterday, Xbox announced a bunch of new titles that were going to be added to the public preview of Project xCloud. One of those games just happens to be Destiny 2, a game that Google has been pushing heavily for its game streaming service, Google Stadia. However, now that Destiny 2 is also on Project xCloud, I wonder how that’s going to affect Stadia.
Stadia already had a problem with regards to Destiny 2; the ecosystem. Players who jumped on to the service have been isolated to playing with other Stadia Destiny 2 players. Which is also true for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Except those platforms have a robust number of players already, with more coming on each day since the game is free-to-play. Meanwhile, reports have shown that the player base for Destiny 2 on Stadia has been dropping. Checking on the current population as this morning paints a rather grim picture.
It doesn’t help that at least for now, the only way to access Stadia is via the Premiere or Founders Editions, both of which include Stadia Pro; a paid service. Then there’s the uncertainty of Destiny 2: Last Light being available for free once the public version of Stadia is released.
Now that Destiny 2 is available for Project xCloud, this means more people will likely play the Xbox version. Especially since they’ll be able to use any Android device (no iOS as of yet), and not confined to use the Google Pixel phones.
All they need to access to Project xCloud’s public preview, an Android device that supports Android 6.0 Marshmallow, an Xbox controller and a handy Xbox controller clamp such as this one. This enables anyone to play Destiny 2, on the go and without the need to have a controller wired to their phone. Not to mention being able to play with a much larger population of players.
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Indeed, I’m not a fan of Stadia, but I respect the technology and have said that there is some potential there. It just needs some time to bake a bit more. But I won’t candy-coat it either, I was disappointed with the initial offering and the lack of Stadia exclusive games hurts. However, this blow from Xbox’s Project xCloud, to me, is really going to hurt Stadia’s chances. Then again, it could be that I’m able to play Destiny 2 and a bunch of other Xbox games on my phone, outside or in my car while I’m waiting to pick up my kids. Which is pretty damned cool if I say so myself.
What do you think? Are you in the Xbox Project xCloud public preview and if so, are you going to give Destiny 2 a chance? Let us know in the comments below.
