Google Stadia: Everything you need to know

January has been a rather quiet month for gaming, but it saw good news this week with the debut of IO Interactive’s Hitman 3, complete with a day and date release on Stadia. Alongside that, here’s what else happened this week on Stadia.

Hitman 3, the conclusion of the World of Assassination trilogy, has launched across all platforms, even bringing State Share support as a Stadia exclusive feature.

After a pretty minor rollout that turned out to be a beta test for State Share on Stadia with Crayta, the potentially game-changing platform feature has arrived in full with the release of Hitman 3 — and we have spent a few days getting to know it better.

On January 20th, Hitman 3 is set to debut on Google Stadia alongside other platforms. In preparation for that release, IO Interactive is taking Hitman 1 and 2 offline on Stadia for the sake of maintenance.

There’s been a drought of Stadia news for the past couple of weeks, but finally we had a couple of meaningful bits of news for Stadia this past week. That includes the launch of Scott Pilgrim on Stadia, as well as the surprise announcement that Ubisoft is making a Star Wars game.

With the launch of Hitman 3 on Stadia next week, State Share is officially debuting. Ahead of that, Google today showed off how the feature works while revealing that it’s coming to the entire trilogy.

Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the most anticipated games of 2020 and subsequently one of the buggiest messes, befitting of the kind of year 2020 was. The latest update to Cyberpunk 2077, patch 1.06, is now available to Stadia players, fixing some of the biggest Stadia-specific bugs, including the weapon sticking issue.

The latest update to the Google Stadia app for Android, version 2.52, includes a teaser for a mysterious “Project Hailstorm,” a new way to play games from the couch with friends or family, a full revamp of the Explore tab, and more.

2K Games has been a supporter of Stadia since the platform’s launch, but there’s a big problem with the company’s release of NBA 2K21 on Stadia — it’s incredibly neglected.

One of the biggest appeals of cloud gaming is the ability to play anywhere, and in 2021 that vision will be even closer to reality. Today, LG has confirmed (via The Verge) that its 2021 TVs will include Google Stadia support as well as Nvidia’s GeForce Now.

2021 is here, and Stadia is starting it off with a bang. Following the quiet final week of 2020, Stadia news was still pretty scarce this week aside from the notable delay of the upcoming game Outriders.

Since the game’s launch, it’s been clear that Stadia’s version of Cyberpunk 2077 runs surprisingly well, and noticeably better than the last-gen versions. Today, the experts at Digital Foundry have formally put Stadia to the test comparing its Cyberpunk 2077 versus the Xbox Series X.

The year 2021 has arrived, and with it, the end of Stadia’s first full year. Of course, with the holiday break came a quiet time for new game updates and announcements, but there were still a few things to keep an eye on. Here’s what happened on Stadia during the last week of 2020 including some good news regarding Football Manager 2021.

Following nine titles to close out last year, Google is ringing in January 2021 with four games joining Stadia Pro this Friday: Ary and the Secret of Seasons, Figment, F1 2020, and Hotline Miami.

Stadia, Google’s still-teething game streaming service, is now over a year old, but it still has many needs and significant room to grow. Here are some of the biggest areas that we see Stadia focusing on for their 2021 road map.

Google has pushed out quite a few freebies on Stadia in an effort to get players on the service, one of the most notable being a $10 coupon for anyone who tried the platform. That $10 Stadia coupon is set to expire next week on January 1, but luckily, anyone who hasn’t used it now has a great reason to take advantage of the discount.