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Google Stadia (opens in new tab) has officially stumbled out of the starting gate, and while it’s a tiny miracle when it works, it often struggles (opens in new tab) to justify its price and indeed its very existence. Like all new platforms, it’s in need of games, so we asked our writers what they’d like to see on Stadia and why. This is the latest in a series of big questions we’ll be interrogating our writers with, so share your answers and suggestions for topics with us on Twitter (opens in new tab).
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
While later entries in DICE’s shooter series have had their moments, the truth is that Battlefield has never been as good as it was in 2010 with Bad Company 2. Sadly, Electronic Arts’ absurd aversion to remastering anything in its back catalogue means the game is currently only playable on PC, and – even then – the remaining userbase is hardly sizeable enough to sustain a long-term commitment to its online firefights. A re-release on Stadia could be exactly what’s needed to bring hundreds flooding back to Bad Company 2’s multiplayer servers, allowing us to relive the glory days of the multiplayer FPS while DICE gets to work on Battlefield 6 for the next generation of hardware. Oh, and more selfishly speaking, I’d finally have another chance to pull of my own RendeZook stunt (opens in new tab) too. I’ll get it one day, you’ll see. – Alex Avard
Metal Gear Solid 3
No, I’m not joking. I already own the game on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation Vita. I’ve never owned five copies of the same game, so that’s worth it right there.
Mostly, though, having only poked around and had a brief look at what Google Stadia can do, it seems really well suited to Hideo Kojima’s masterpiece. Not only could I fire up what is probably my ultimate comfort blanket in mere seconds, the little Google Assistant feature means I could learn a whole lot more about the library of Cold War references, shoutouts, and in-jokes to films that I’m fairly sure don’t even exist.
In my own little dream world where Kojima and Konami are BFFs again, he’d also add in a few fun little Easter eggs for the Stadia version. Imagine Googling “How to kill The End” and he starts redacting all the results to do with your system clock? Perfect. – Bradley Russell
A remastered Mass Effect trilogy
Imagine Mass Effect with remastered graphics in 4K resolution living on a cloud, never touching your precious hard drive. A fully remastered Mass Effect trilogy would give Stadia another exclusive while allowing it to show off its purported capabilities – it would drive everyone wild, but imagine if it was a fully remastered PC version that was a timed exclusive on Stadia? If the streaming service ever has a sales lag, this would sort that out right quick. I’m evil, I know. There’s not many things that would make me personally buy Stadia, but a completely rebuilt and re-beautiful Mass Effect trilogy would do the trick. – Alyssa Mercante
Resident Evil 4
I’ll be honest, there’s not a thing Google could realistically do to make me interested in Stadia. We’ll pass sensible climate change regulations before streaming tech outpaces local hardware, and quite frankly, I like the platforms I already own. Also, my internet is good, but not that good. That said, Google Stadia is a golden opportunity to put Resident Evil 4 on another platform. Last I checked, Resident Evil 4 has been ported approximately 11,000 times, and this fact never fails to make me laugh. Google, let’s make it 11,001. I can’t stress enough that it won’t make me buy or play Stadia, but I would really appreciate it. – Austin Wood
Fortnite
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Fortnite is the obvious pick here. Epic’s free-to-play Battle Royale is pretty much the only thing I play consistently, and if Stadia allows me to play it at PC quality anytime and anywhere, I’m in. In fact, it’s almost staggering that Fortnite isn’t a launch title. Why wouldn’t you want one of the most popular games in the world on your platform? I can only imagine Epic said no – wanting to keep everything within its ever-expanding ecosystem of launchers – but if the two can find a way to make it happen I’ll happily play Fortnite exclusively on Stadia provided I can carry my account over. – James Jarvis
Something I couldn’t play anywhere else
Google Stadia technically has at least one exclusive game: Gylt. But Gylt looks like it could just as easily run on a PS4 or an Xbox One, and it probably will once the exclusivity agreement Tequila Works presumably signed with Google expires. What I really want to see on Stadia is a game that I couldn’t play anywhere else – something that uses all that cloud power Google’s been talking up to create a truly unique experience. Maybe that’s a big-budget action game with all the connected play and permanence of an MMORPG, maybe it’s a deep social experience that’s like PlayStation Home or Second Life but less weird and full of load screens, or maybe it’s something I can’t even imagine right now. Even if it’s something I don’t want to play personally, just knowing that Stadia has allowed a new kind of game to exist would instantly make me excited for the platform. – Connor Sheridan
