![]() ![]() ![]() Throughout its life span, Stadia lacked a hit that felt closely associated with the platform. Even getting a 1oth of that massive 814,000 concurrent Steam player count probably would’ve made it one of the most successful Stadia games. But if it had eft early access on PC and Stadia simultaneously, that would have been a major boon for the cloud gaming service as it would be available ahead of any console port. Baldur’s Gate 3 could have made Stadia betterīaldur’s Gate 3 was in early access on Google Stadia prior to the service’s shutdown and didn’t necessarily get much attention there. Sadly, there was never a chance for that possibility to come to fruition, and we’ve yet to see what “ alternative streaming solutions” Larian Studios has in store for the game. But being able to save some hard drive space, have some more versatility in where I can play it, and use some neat features like State Share would have made me consider making Stadia my preferred platform to play Baldur’s Gate 3 had the service still been around today. Googleīaldur’s Gate 3 is still a fantastic game without all of these things when playing on PC. Coupled with cross-saving, it would have made it easy to try anyone’s game save on any platform Baldur’s Gate 3 was available on. Finally, State Share, a standout Stadia feature that allowed players to save their game state with a link and give it to others, would have made it a lot of fun to swap characters around or see how your friends’ choices and worlds differed from yours. Stream Connect would have allowed players to see what their friends were doing on their screens in multiplayer. Crowd Choice would have added a fun multiplayer wrinkle for streamers who let their audience influence their character’s choices and dice roles. Then there’s the promised Stadia-exclusive Baldur’s Gate 3 features that never saw the light of day. The ability to cross-save Baldur’s Gate 3 to that platform and play there if I ever needed to open up space on my PC would have been useful. That was another problem a Google Stadia version of the game could have solved. While I could play it on my Steam Deck, I’m hesitant to install Baldur’s Gate 3 on it because of its massive file size - 123.4 GB is a massive chunk of my Steam Deck’s internal memory and not something I want just one game to take up. The added portability and versatility cloud gaming provides is a hidden strength. I’ve ignored those feelings for the most part and played a lot of Baldur’s Gate 3 at my desk, but I’ve also found myself using Steam Link to stream the game to my Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld. My gaming PC is the same one I work from, so I don’t always love sitting at it for extended periods after work unless I have to. But despite that, I don’t love that I have to sit at my desktop to play it. Even as I’m writing this, there’s a yearning to play more of Baldur’s Gate 3 in the back of my mind. I’ve enjoyed its excellent writing and the freedom of choice that’s allowed me to circumvent entire set pieces by killing a boss like Minthara early or letting Nere suffocate in a cave. I played over 20 hours of the title in a weekend, marathoning it in a fashion I don’t usually do for a game I’m not reviewing. Stadia could have made Baldur’s Gate 3 betterīaldur’s Gate 3 has gripped me in a way few games do. Baldur’s Gate 3’s success is not just a testament to Larian Studios’ success, but to Google’s failure as well. The critical and commercial success of Baldur’s Gate 3 shows that Google could’ve had a hit on its hands had it focused on selling a library of great games that benefited from cloud tech, rather than the tech itself. From its large file size to the appeal of not having to sit at a desktop to play this 100-hour game, a cloud version of Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t sound like a bad idea right now. ![]()
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