Stadia exclusive Outcasters faces oblivion thanks to platform’s impending closure
It’s been two weeks since everyone learnedGoogle will pull the plug on Stadia in early 2023, and while this news isn’t surprising, seeing how poorly Google managed the service over the last three years, plenty of fallout is still expected. From the question of whether or not Google will do the right thing and update its controllers for regular bluetooth support to exclusives possibly going the way of the dodo. While we’ve yet to hear if every Stadia exclusive will officially find its way to new platforms, it has been confirmed by the developer Splash Damage that it has no current plans to bringOutcastersto new platforms.
The tweet above spells it out quite clearly. Outcasters will live its last days on Stadia until the platform closes in early 2023. While Outcasters was already faltering on Stadia thanks to the fact it’s a multiplayer-focused shooter that was unable to find a player base large enough to ensure fans could easily find matches, it’s still a shame to hear Outcasters will more than likely fade into the ether when Stadia shuts its doors, as it is a solid multiplayer title.
The crux of the matter is that Outcasters was made specifically for Stadia, so porting the title would require significant work, money that the developer clearly doesn’t want to spend. Unlike Splash Damage, some devs have found ways to bring their Stadia exclusives to new platforms. For instance, Gylt will go multi-platform next year. Sadly the developers for PixelJunk Raiders, Hello Engineer, and Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle have yet to confirm whether these titles will see release elsewhere.
More or less, Stadia’s upcoming closure means you will lose access to its exclusives if these titles don’t find their way to new platforms. Today it’s confirmed that Outcasters is one such title nobody will be able to play once Stadia shuts its doors. While we’ll allget refunds for the Stadia games we’ve purchased, there’s nothing positive about losing access to titles that will disappear from existence entirely. After all, many gamers take game preservation pretty seriously, so there’s no doubt Google has burned tons of goodwill with the gaming community that will more than likelyimpact the companyfor years to come. Gamers might often begullible consumers, but they have memories like elephants, knowledge that might have benefited Google before it chose to hire a product manager that bungled the launch of two high-profile gaming consoles prior to Stadia.
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