Stadia Changelog: Another week without new games, but there are neat new streaming features

Google Stadia has gone another week without new games, but the platform did officially announce a few new features for streaming, among other news around the platform.

Stadia Changelog is a weekly series on 9to5Google where we round up some of the Stadia news that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to talk about. This includes a roundup of which new games were released on Stadia during the week, which games saw updates and patches, new games either confirmed or speculated for the platform, and more. Come back every Friday, and don’t forget to check out Bandwidth, our weekly look at the rest of the cloud gaming world, including GeForce Now, Luna, and more.

New games on Stadia

The week of August 15, 2022, was yet another without any new titles added to Google Stadia’s library. It’s the second week in a row in August that there have been no new games, and the twelfth week (out of 33 so far) in 2022 that has gone without any new releases on the platform.

Google has added 44 new games to Stadia in 2022. In 2021, Google delivered 107 new titles to the Stadia library, and the company promised at least 100 new games during 2022 – a tall order at this current rate. Notably, Google has stopped including the promise of 100 new games in its most recent community updates and blog posts, with the last mention having been in March.

Games coming to Stadia

One of the biggest reveals this week about new games on Stadia was a full release date for From Space, which will arrive day-and-date on Stadia alongside Nintendo Switch and PC on September 29.

Beyond that, Bratz: Flaunt Your Fashion was officially announced and will be available on Stadia “this fall.”

Updates

Google details new streaming features for Stadia

As part of its community blog this week, Google officially announced Party Stream, which started rolling out earlier this month. Party Stream allows users to share a stream of their gameplay with others using just a link, even if those users lack a Stadia account.

In the post, Google uses the example of playing Jackbox Party Pack with Party Stream, which frankly seems like a genius idea, and might just make Stadia the single best way to play Stadia remotely. If you’ve never played the game remotely, it works out great for the most part, but latency in a typical live stream or even through Zoom can hurt the playability. Party Stream seems like an easier and just better way to get started.

Beyond that, Google also detailed new streaming features for Stadia including the ability to live stream in up to 4K HDR, the ability to switch devices while streaming, and the ability to stream from a mobile device or TV (after the stream has been started from the Stadia web app).

République is now free to play

The game République is celebrating its tenth anniversary this month, and has gone free-to-play for all users. Stadia players can now start the game with no payment or Pro membership.You can access the game here.

Marvel’s Avengers adding The Winter Soldier

Marvel’s Avengers announced its v2.6 update this week, which will arrive in September. The update will add the “No Rest for the Wicked” Warzone as well as expand on the story, which will apparently see the return of MODOK from the game’s original storyline.

The Scientist Supreme is running out of resources (and clones) and takes further risks to secure AIM’s power. Monica has recovered M.O.D.O.K. from the San Francisco Bay with plans to revive him for use as a weapon against the Avengers. Our heroes must put an end to her plans before the mutation-maddened genius returns.

But beyond that, there’s also a new playable character coming in Bucky Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier.

Saints Row gets a new trailer

A new gameplay trailer focused on the story has been released for Saints Row ahead of its August 23 release date.