Baldur’s Gate 3 coming to PC and Stadia via early access on September 30, 2020, Larian Studios revealed today during a live broadcast. This marks the first time that a major game will be released on Stadia at the same time as another major platform. Larian Studios’ enthusiasm for Stadia as a game development platform has something to do with it. One huge reason why Baldur’s Gate 3 coming to Stadia next to PC is that the developer finds it easier to port a game like the big RPG from PC to Stadia then to an Xbox or PlayStation console. But not only that, Larin Studios has been pretty focused on the development tools that Stadia offers, and what it can do with those tools that it could not previously do on PC and console.
In today’s stream, the developers showed what’s called Crowd Choice, something that Larian Studios has already talked about extensively and is a feature exclusive to Stadia development tools at the moment. When someone streams Baldur’s Gate 3 and has the Crowd Choice option enabled, certain points in the game will trigger a pop-up poll in the chat window to let viewers have their say on what they think should happen. The most popular reaction will trigger that whole thing in the game. With this feature, viewers can influence the outcome of a dice roll, NPC dialogue, or even what sweet, sweet loot lies in a locked chest.
It seems to have a lot of potential to not only influence how a YouTube or Twitch audience interacts with someone’s streaming Baldur’s Gate 3, but depending on the success of the feature, more developers may consider it as creating game mechanics around it, and turning it into a selling feature, as Larian Studios tries. That could not only mean More games available at Stadia, but maybe even the same day releases.
But it all depends on how well the Crowd Choice, and without a doubt other features, are integrated into the game itself, and as Crowd Choice causes more gamers to opt for the Stadia version of Baldur’s Gate 3 about PC. Finally, you can play Stadia for free, and if you play it on your PC, you do not need to buy a Chromecast or a Stadia controller – just play the game. Even if you already have a super tricked-out gaming rig, it might be better to buy the Stadia version (if you have a good internet connection) just to try the Stadia Crowd Choice feature in a private stream with friends. The PC version of Baldur’s Gate 3 will not have this feature though can have a way for players to see what decisions their friends are making in cooperative multiplayer. Sounds almost not that exciting.
If done well, so could it encourage some developers to port their games to Stadia. Games like Life is strange, Man of Medan, Ox-free, and other games with player selection as central mechanic I could see well with this Stadia feature. And as more developers start porting or making their games for Stadia, so will the larger library of games that Stadia has to offer, and the more serious of a gaming platform it becomes.
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But even as developers’ interest in Stadia grows toward this, Google will have to start paying more to their developers if it wants to build a larger library of games. There is also that longing afraid that Google will leave Stadia as it has left other major projects in the past. But while Crowd Choice, will not fundamentally change the game, it’s interesting enough where – and I never thought I would say this before, but here I go – I want to buy Baldur’s Gate 3 on Stages instead of PC.
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