You better not run out of battery in your flashlight, darkness approaches…GYLT, the delicate horror game by Tequila Works (us), responsibles for RiME, The Invisible Hours, The Sexy Brutale, Deadlight and the upcoming Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story, among others, is finally out on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Steam and will soon be available on GOG!

With bullying as a common thread, the game presents Sally, an 11 years old girl whose little cousin, Emily, has gone missing. While everyone else has stopped looking for her, she's decided to find her. The mission will take her to a weird and dangerous version of her own city. But what can a small girl do against the night's horrors? Well, more than you may think.

Embark on a journey where you face your worst fears and are confronted with the emotional impact of your actions. After its release as an exclusive launch title on Google Stadia in 2019, GYLT will be now accessible to new players starting July 6th on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One and PC, with wishlist open on Steam.

We, Tequila Works, the studio behind RiME and the upcoming Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story, among other titles, announces July the 6th as the chosen release date for its delicate horror game GYLT on new platforms.

It was widely reported yesterday that Phil Harrison has left Google, where he served a stint as Vice President and General Manager of the now shuttered Stadia cloud-based game streaming service. An official statement has not been released by Google or Harrison regarding a change in leadership - according to an article published by Business Insider, the latter's LinkedIn profile indicates an end date in April 2023. Harrison's departure from Google coincides roughly with the final shutdown of Stadia services back in January of this year.

Phil Harrison was announced as a new vice president and general manager at Google in early 2018, but the company had not revealed any plans to enter into the games console market at that point in time. The hiring of Harrison was viewed as an early preview of things to come, given his past experience of leadership roles at both Sony and Microsoft video games division. He spent 16 years of his career at Sony Corporation, ultimately becoming president of the company's Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS) until departing in 2008. He joined Microsoft in 2012, following short spells at Infogrames, Atari and Gaikai. At Xbox he was the executive leader of the European Interactive Entertainment team until 2015. Google debuted its Stadia gaming platform in 2019, and to no surprise, Harrison was announced as the product manager for this new endeavor.

Google is "positioning itself as a go-to tech partner for publishers of live-service video games" by offering its cloud gaming technology to outside companies. This is an interesting statement regarding the future trajectory of its cloud gaming infrastructure, given the scarcity of updates since the January 2023 shutdown of the Cloud giant's Stadia gaming platform.

Google Cloud's director of Game Industry solutions, Jack Buser, was interviewed by Axios in an article published earlier this week, he outlined the company's ambitions to move forward in a post-Stadia world. Google Cloud is seeking partnership with publishers, its technology is being offered to prospective clients as a support platform for live-service games. "Google is absolutely committed to games that are such a big part of our messaging," Buser said. "When we made the decision with Stadia, we were just like, look, we are committed to games as an industry."

Game streaming services, such as GeForce Now, Stadia and Amazon's Luna, haven't been the roaring success the companies behind them had hoped for. One of the pitfalls, that NVIDIA quickly found out, was that the game publishers weren't overly keen on gamers being able to play games they already owned on multiple systems, even if it wasn't on more than one system at once. Multiple services have already come and gone over the years and now it's time for Google to bid farewell to its Stadia service. In its blog post, Google didn't state the exact reasoning behind shutting down the service, beyond it not gaining the kind of traction the company had hoped for.

The good news here is that Google will be refunding all of its Stadia customers, regardless if it's someone that has bought hardware through the Google Store, or bought games or even add-on content for games through the Stadia Store. Google will be refunding all of its customers by the 18th of January 2023 and those using Stadia will continue to have access to all of their content until that date. Google expects its Stadia technology to be used for other services, or potentially be made available to third parties. As to the team behind Stadia, many will apparently carry on working for other departments at Google.

Today, during the very first Ubisoft Forward Spotlight event, Ubisoft announced that Skull and Bones will release on 8th November, 2022. The open-world pirate multiplayer game with survival elements will be available with cross-play and cross-progression on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X | S, Stadia as well as Windows PC through the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store. Players can also subscribe to Ubisoft+ on PC, Stadia and Amazon Luna.

Developed by Ubisoft Singapore in collaboration with other Ubisoft studios, Skull and Bones will invite players to chart their own destiny and rise from an outcast to becoming a pirate kingpin. To do so, they will need to build their Infamy through thrilling naval combat and rewarding expeditions in a treacherous world. Inspired by the legendary tales around piracy, players will get to experience the authentic pirate life. From accepting contracts, gathering resources, to navigating important trade routes and attacking wealthy merchant ships, each decision will influence their journey, with varying levels of risk and reward. As they grow their Infamy, players will be able to fully craft and customise their naval fleet and unlock a variety of new items throughout the game.

Samsung Electronics, today announced that Xbox is joining Samsung Gaming Hub, a new game streaming discovery platform available on 2022 Samsung Smart TVs including Neo QLED 8K, Neo QLED 4K, QLEDs and 2022 Smart Monitor Series. Samsung Gaming Hub will become the world's first Smart TV platform to include the Xbox app on Smart TVs. With this partnership, Samsung Gaming Hub users are now able to stream over 100 high quality games, through the Xbox app, including blockbuster titles like Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5. Moreover, they can play new games on day one of release from Xbox Game Studios and enjoy iconic franchises from Bethesda Softworks and more.

Powered by Tizen, Samsung Gaming Hub is a new game streaming discovery platform bridging hardware and software for a better player experience on 2022 Samsung Smart TVs, enabling gamers to instantly access the games they love from industry-leading content partners. In addition to the Xbox app offering hundreds of their favorite games via Xbox Game Pass, gamers can also look forward to an amazing gaming experience with minimized latency and amazing visual graphics thanks to advanced motion enhancements and game-play performance technology across Samsung's 2022 Smart TV lineup and 2022 Smart Monitor Series.

Samsung has taken a bold step toward the post-console future in the living room, by adding NVIDIA GeForce NOW and Google Stadia game-streaming services as in-built apps with select models in its 2022 lineup of smart TVs. The TVs integrate Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 6, besides USB, so you can pair them directly with popular wireless game controllers, or even a keyboard+mouse combo. Samsung has integrated services like Utomic, GeForce NOW, and Stadia, among other such apps, into its new UI for gamers called the Samsung Gaming Hub. It also has other apps relevant to gamers, such as Twitch, YouTube Gaming, etc. A key feature of Gaming Hub is its ability to display games from your various libraries on the main screen.

Amazon announced its Luna game streaming service as a competitor to Google Stadia and Microsoft xCloud back in 2020. Amazon is now launching the service for Prime members with a free seven-day trial available from June 21st. This is the first time the service will be offered to those without an early access invite and will cost 5.99 USD per month after the trial has expired. The Luna game library includes titles from Capcom, 505 Games, and Team 17 with some highlights including Control, GRID, and Metro Exodus. Ubisoft games will also be offered however they are separate from the base library and cost 15 USD per month. Amazon is also offering the Luna controller for the first time with a limited 30% discount bringing the cost to 48.99 USD.

Lenovo has teamed up with Google to offer three months of free access to Stadia Pro, the cloud gaming subscription service offered by Google, on new Lenovo Legion and IdeaPad gaming PCs. By collaborating with Stadia, Lenovo continues a long-standing strategy of offering gamers worldwide more choice in how and where they play.

The collaboration means anyone who purchases a new Lenovo Legion or IdeaPad gaming PC will receive three free months of access to the Stadia Pro gaming experience. Customers will be able to redeem the optional offer via Lenovo Vantage, the "My Software" page on Lenovo devices, using a URL with a special redemption code. The offer will also be available via our Legion Gaming community in select markets. The offer will roll out starting this month in 22 markets across North America and Europe.

Google late Monday announced that it is halting investments into Stadia Games & Entertainment (SG&E), its internal division tasked with the development of first-party games and content for the game streaming platform. The company announced that it will continue to invest in Stadia, including its further development, as a platform for third-party game studios, pointing users to the recent success of "Cyberpunk 2077" on the platform. Jade Raymond, the head of SG&E, has left the company.

Google reiterated that it sees streaming as the future of gaming. "Having games streamed to any screen is the future of this industry, and we'll continue to invest in Stadia and its underlying platform to provide the best cloud gaming experience for our partners and the gaming community," it stated in a blog post announcing these changes. The company also assured subscribers that it will continue to bring new games and content from third-party game developers. "You can continue playing all your games on Stadia and Stadia Pro, and we'll continue to bring new titles from third parties to the platform. We're committed to the future of cloud gaming, and will continue to do our part to drive this industry forward. Our goal remains focused on creating the best possible platform for gamers and technology for our partners, bringing these experiences to life for people everywhere," it stated.

LG Electronics (LG) announces a planned partnership with Google to bring Stadia to its latest webOS smart TVs in the second half of this year. After Stadia comes to Google TV, LG will be the first TV manufacturer to natively support Stadia gameplay via webOS.

LG is demonstrating its commitment to supporting premium gaming on its state-of-the-art displays, made even more compelling with support for 4k and 5.1 surround sound for Stadia Pro users. Stadia on LG TVs will allow customers to instantly play hit Stadia games such as Cyberpunk 2077, NBA 2K21, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion with just a Stadia controller and no additional hardware or game downloads required.

Developer CD Projekt Red has announced that Cyberpunk 2077 is now facing another delay - this one of just 21 days. The game is now slated for release on December 10th, which gives the developer more time to work on the launch-day patch so that everything runs as smoothly as possible when the game is out in the wild and in the hands of millions of expectant gamers.

The developer clarified that the reason for the game's delay is the need to launch it concurrently on all platforms they've committed to - current-gen, next-gen, PC, and Stadia. In total, the developer is working on polishing and testing nine different versions of the game (PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PC, and Stadia). This is just mind-bogglingly complex, as you might expect. We also have to take into account that CD Projekt Red has its own shoes to fill when it comes to final quality, and we must remember that first impressions make or break a videogame's reception in the current climate (remember Mass Effect: Andromeda or any other number of games). It seems that the cautious, methodical approach may be the best one for such a high-stakes release. I, for one, would much rather enjoy a game with less chances of game-breaking bugs than a rushed release - especially considering the amount of platforms the game is shipping for.

The recent comments from Google Stadia Montreal Creative Director Alex Hutchinson regarding game streaming revenue sharing have generated significant public backlash from consumers and developers alike. The Creative Director suggested that game streamers should have to purchase a commercial license or pay royalties to game developers in return for streaming their games. These comments were quickly associated with Google Stadia by the community which has prompted Google to issue a statement distancing themselves from Alex Hutchinson's comments. Alex Hutchinson's Twitter bio has also been updated to reflect that all opinions are his own.

GoogleThe recent tweets by Alex Hutchinson, creative director at the Montreal Studio of Stadia Games and Entertainment, do not reflect those of Stadia, YouTube or Google.

Ubisoft has been a major proponent of Google Stadia since release announcing plans to integrate uPlay+ and was the first major publisher to release a new game on the platform. Ubisoft has recently announced plans to bring eight older titles to Stadia in the coming weeks, these games include; Watch Dogs, Watch Dogs 2, Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Assassin's Creed Unity, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, Far Cry New Dawn, and Far Cry 5. These titles are in addition to major new releases such as Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Far Cry 6 which are set to launch in the coming months. A variety of smaller Ubisoft games are also coming soon to Stadia, including Just Dance 2021, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, and Riders Republic.

Amazon has joined the ranks of fellow tech giants in launching their very own cloud game streaming service. Luna is a cloud gaming service that lets you play games on compatible Fire TV, PC, and Mac devices as well as through web apps on iPhones and iPads. The new service will compete with Google Stadia, Microsoft xCloud, NVIDIA GeForce Now, SONY PlayStation Now, and more boutique services such as Shadow or Vortex. Luna is currently in an invitation-only stage with initial pricing of 5.99 USD per month for Luna+ while in early access. Luna+ supports gameplay on two devices at once with resolutions of up to 1080p 60 FPS with 4K support coming in the future for select titles.

Luna offers game channels which grant access to a specification selection of games for a monthly fee currently, only Luna+ is offered with a Ubisoft channel coming soon. Luna+ features a variety of action, adventure, platformer, indie, shooter, RPG, racing, and classic games from Ubisoft, Capcom, 505 Games, and Team 17 with more games to be added over time. Some of the major games on the platform include Control, Grid, Resident Evil 7, Metro Exodus, ABZÛ, Overcooked 2, and Two Point Hospital. The Ubisoft channel will include a variety of games including Watch Dogs: Legion with all DLC unlocked for play on a single device for an as of yet unannounced monthly fee.

It's time for players of all skill levels to lace up their boots and step into the ring: WWE 2K Battlegrounds is here! Developed by Saber Interactive and available now for the PlayStation 4 system, the Xbox One family of devices, including the Xbox One X and Windows PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch system and Stadia for $39.99, WWE 2K Battlegrounds brings fast-paced action and an assortment of power-ups, special moves, unconventional melee items and interactive environments to take the brawl to the next level. Players can take on the challenges alone or compete with friends and family on the couch or online in cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes.

"We're excited to add WWE 2K Battlegrounds to 2K's growing portfolio of WWE and licensed sports properties, and to offer yet another way for gamers to enjoy WWE video game action," said David Ismailer, President at 2K. "This arcade-style brawler offers a completely different experience from our WWE 2K simulation franchise and WWE SuperCard collectible card battling game, that we're confident fans will enjoy."

Cloud gaming is the next step in mobile gaming, with services like Microsoft project xCloud aiming to bring AAA titles right to your mobile phone. Microsoft has already been testing its xCloud application on Android and iOS devices for some time, and the application was supposed to launch sometime in September. However, it seems like Microsoft is only going to serve the customers on Android, as Apple says that these types of applications violate App Store guidelines. This doesn't only apply to xCloud, but also Google's Stadia gaming platform. When developer uploads application to App Store for iOS, the application goes through a review by Apple, for security reason and for Apple to check if it meets its guidelines.

Being that xCloud and Stadia are types of applications which offer a way to access many more applications (games in this case), this is against Apple's policy as they can't control the applications these services offer.

The popular battle royale PlayersUnknown's BattleGround, called PUBG shortly, has managed to sell over 70 million copies across all platforms it is supported on, like PC and consoles. The huge achievement comes after two and a half years after the game was released, marking a huge achievement for battle royale type of games. The PUBG Corporation, makers of the game, decided to celebrate the new milestone with a release of a remastered Sanhok map. The new Sanhok map is redesigned from the ground up and the developer describes it as "leaner, meaner, and more deadly than ever before!". The new map will go live with the season 8 update, which is going live on July 22nd on Steam, and July 30th on consoles and Google Stadia.

Super Bomberman R was released in March 2017 for the Nintendo Switch with support for other consoles coming the next year, the game received mixed to positive reviews but retained a decent player base over the last few years. Konami has recently unveiled plans to revitalize the series with the new Super Bomberman R Online coming first to Google Stadia. The game is set to release in Fall 2020 on Google Stadia with other platforms coming later, with pricing yet to be confirmed.

Google Stadia/KonamiDrop bombs and collect power-ups to blast your way through SUPER BOMBERMAN R ONLINE! You can compete against up to 64 players from around the world in this explosive survival battle. With the new BATTLE 64 mode, move from one area to another and blast away your rivals in an epic online survival battle! Fight your way to the end and outlast all other players to be BOMBER ONE!

"Our country is like this grenade… you must clutch our people nice and tight or we all go boom." - Antón Castillo. Today during Ubisoft Forward, Ubisoft announced that Far Cry 6 is currently in development and will release February 18, 2021 on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Stadia and the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store on Windows PC, as well as on UPLAY+, the Ubisoft subscription service.

With performances from renowned actor and Emmy Award Nominee Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul, The Boys, The Mandalorian) joined by Anthony Gonzalez (Coco), a score created by film and television composer Pedro Bromfman (Narcos), and an opening sequence directed by Emmy Award winner Patrick Clair (Westworld, True Detective), Far Cry 6 brings in Hollywood-calibre talent to bolster the narrative experience.

Google Stadia has recently expanded its list of supported Android devices to include OnePlus smartphones, in addition to this they have now enabled experimental support for all Android phones. To access the feature on untested phones you must visit the Stadia app, navigate to the Experiments tab in your Settings menu, and choose "Play on this device."

To coincide with this launch, Google is introducing another experimental feature, mobile touch controls. With mobile touch controls, players can play any Stadia game with a virtual gamepad overlay, to enable the feature select "Try touch gamepad" after launching a game without a controller connected. Finally, Google is also bringing per device resolution options which can be accessed under Options > Performance.

Get the app here.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick sounded very positive about Google Stadia just one year ago, saying he was "pretty optimistic" about the service. Zelnick said "being able to play our games on any device whatsoever around the world, and to do it with low latency, well that's very compelling if that can be delivered," about the service in May 2019.

In a recent interview last week Zelnick has acknowledged the lackluster success of the platform saying "the launch of Stadia has been slow," and "I think there was some overpromising on what the technology could deliver and some consumer disappointment as a result." Zelnick questioned the point of such a service when the games are selling for 60 USD+ and a console of similar performance without any of the drawbacks of an online service can be had for just 300 USD. It will be interesting to see the fate of the collection of game streaming services that have popped up over the last few years.

This week Google Stadia added the option to stream games on chrome at 2560x1440 resolution so that users with QHD monitors can now stream games at their monitors' native resolution compared to just 1080p or 4k previously. To play in QHD resolution users will need an active Stadia Pro subscription, a network speed of 35 Mbps or greater, and a Windows computer or Chromebook with VP9 hardware decoding and a QHD monitor.

In other news, this week the Stadia Store gained two new games those being Jotun: Valhalla Edition, and Sundered: Eldritch Edition. Stadia Pro subscribers are also set to receive The Elder Scrolls Online for Free on June 16 along with the Morrowind Chapter as free content. Stadia players can enjoy crossplay support with PC, which means you'll be able to play with friends across Stadia and PC.

As revealed during Microsoft's Inside Xbox show, Codemasters is delighted to announce DIRT 5, launching from October 2020 on Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, Windows PC (via Steam) and the current generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles. A Google Stadia version will be released in early 2021. Whilst respecting the heritage and retaining the DNA of the franchise, DIRT 5 writes a new chapter in the legacy of DIRT - bolder and braver than ever before. DIRT 5 is more than relentless rallying, more than suspension-shaking jumps, more than hairpins and handbrakes. Join an energised world of off-road racing, and be part of a vibe that delivers big on epic action, pure expression, and unbridled style.