Stadia Changelog: Saints Row arrives as Jackbox Party Pack 9 prepares QR sign-in and more

Ben Schoon | Aug 26 2022 - 1:00 pm PT

Google Stadia was in a bit of a drought for new games this month, but three new titles arrived this week including the reboot of Saints Row.

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

Saints Row is the biggest game in recent memory to make its debut on Google Stadia. The game puts players in the fictional city of Santo Illeso to battle for control of the city.

As the future Boss, with Neenah, Kevin, and Eli by your side, you’ll form The Saints – and take on Los Panteros, The Idols, and Marshall as you build your empire across the streets of Santo Ileso and battle for control of the city. Ultimately Saints Row is the story of a start-up company, it’s just that the business The Saints are in happens to be crime.

Saints Row is available on Google Stadia for $59.99, the same price as other platforms. Some players have reported some issues with in-game items due to the inability to link a Stadia account with a Saints Row account, but some have also found that the Stadia port of the game is performing better than other platforms, with fewer bugs.

Notably, Saints Row did release to mostly negative reviews across all platforms, including Stadia. The reception, which earned a mere 3.1 out of 10 user rating on Metacritic, has been largely due to bugs in the game at launch as well as complaints around the gameplay and story. It’s been a controversial launch, to say the least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIjUmpLWMSg

Besides Saints Row, Google Stadia also saw two other titles released this week, including an addition to Stadia Pro.

Saints Row – $59.99
Yars: Recharged – $9.99 or free on Stadia Pro
Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? – $29.99

Google has added 47 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 – which seems virtually impossible at this current rate with less than fourth months to go.

Games coming to Stadia

What’s next? There are a few new titles in the pipeline.

Dead Island 2 was a huge and unexpected announcement earlier this week, and it will arrive on Stadia next February, day-and-date with other platforms – it seems this release won’t be playing the same annoying game Saints Row did in not confirming a Stadia release until the last minute.

Jackbox Party Pack 9 was also confirmed for Stadia and is set to launch this Fall.

Google also officially announced September’s Stadia Pro lineup this week, which confirmed the arrival of the Tron-inspired game Tri6: Infinite. Life is Strange 2 was also spotted in the rating boards as coming to Stadia.

Updates

Jackbox Party Pack 9 adds QR sign-in and the ability to kick players

Jackbox Party Pack 9 was officially confirmed for Stadia this week, and it will bring some long-awaited features to the series. Firstly, Party Pack 9 will support QR sign-in, so you can skip the code and entering the URL on your phone, and just scan the TV with your camera instead.

Other added features in the series’ latest entry include the ability for the host to kick players from an ongoing game, something that’s never been available before this release. The feature will be available at mod.jackbox.tv and is designed for streamers on Twitch and YouTube – streamers can also appoint moderators to help manage players.

Finally, hosts are now given the ability to reconnect during a game more easily. If the host loses their connection, they’ll get five minutes to get back in while the game itself is paused for that time.

Stadia Enhanced picks up new languages and more

The popular Chrome extension that improves Stadia gameplay, Stadia Enhanced, picked up an update to version 1.20.9 this week. What’s new? The extension is now available in Polish, and has been updated with an improved Spanish translation. There are also bug fixes for the Stadia store, database, and custom columns in the library grid.

Destiny 2 Season 18

Bungie this week announced Season 18 of Destiny 2, “Season of Plunder.” The season runs from August 23 through December 6.

Eramis, awoken from her icy prison by a Dark benefactor, has rallied old pirate lords of Eliksni legend to assist her in recovering lost relics of great power… unless you plunder them first. There is no horizon to reach, no edge to your map, but there most certainly is treasure. Assemble your crew, Guardian.

Hello Engineer picks up ‘Secret Room’ update

The still Stadia-exclusive game Hello Engineer has just picked up its second major update, “Secret Room.” The update adds a new secret clubhouse area in the game’s sandbox, and a few other new tweaks including: