Google Stadia Inks Exclusive Partnerships With These Five Big Studios

Google just wrapped up another Stadia Connect, and while the show mostly covered games that are coming to the service, Google also made some fairly big announcements. The first involves Click to Play, a feature that's been teased since before the service even launched. In addition, Google announced that it has signed exclusive agreements with several big studios.

First, though, the launch of Click to Play. This new feature is pretty straightforward, as it allows Stadia Pro members to begin playing a game just by clicking an associated link in a YouTube description. Click to Play links can work on any device that supports Stadia, and are compatible with any games you've claimed through Stadia Pro or purchased from the Stadia Store.

In addition to Click to Play, Google also revealed that it has signed exclusive partnerships with five popular developers: Harmonix, Uppercut Games, Splash Damage, Supermassive Games, and Robot Entertainment. Harmonix is known for its work on the Rock Band series, Supermassive's most famous title is Until Dawn, and Uppercut Games is an indie developer perhaps best known for Submerged. Google will reveal the games those three studios are working on at a future date, but it did reveal projects from the other two during today's Stadia Connect.

First up is Splash Damage with Outcasters, which seems to be a multiplayer shooter with some battle royale elements that tasks players with pulling off trick shots. We'll learn more about Outcasters ahead of its fall 2020 release window, but more immediately, there's Orcs Must Die 3 from Robot Entertainment.

The first two Orcs Must Die games are fairly well known among tower defense fans, and we've known for a while that Orcs Must Die 3 would be a timed Stadia exclusive. As with the first two games, Orcs Must Die 3 will have you placing traps and towers to fend off an invading Orc army. Orcs Must Die 3 is available today as a free game for Pro users or for $29.99 through the Stadia Store.

Aside from Click to Play and these exclusive partnerships, the rest of today's Stadia Connect was all about games. Some of the upcoming games revealed today include Super Bomberman R Online, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, NBA 2K21, WWE Battlegrounds, Hitman, Hitman 2, and Dead by Daylight. If you missed today's Stadia Connect, you can watch the whole thing in the video embedded above.