Google signs exclusive Stadia game deals with Rock Band and Until Dawn developers

Part of a slew of new game announcements for the servic

Google has signed on five new developers to make exclusive titles for its Stadia cloud gaming service. Two of those five already have fully realized projects, with one ready for release.

Developer Splash Damage, which developed the recent Microsoft exclusive Gears Tactics, is now making an online multiplayer game called Outcasters, while popular strategy and tower defense studio Robot Entertainment has its third installment in its Orcs Must Die! series arriving on Stadia today as part of the Stadia Pro subscription or for $29.99. (Orcs Must Die! 3 was previously announced as a Stadia exclusive in August 2019.

But the bigger news, part of Google’s broader Stadia Connect event on Tuesday, is that Google has teamed up with Rock Band developer Harmonix and Until Dawn studio Supermassive Games to bring exclusive games to the platform at some point in the future. Also included in its slate of upcoming exclusives is a new title from lesser-known studio Uppercut Games, known for popular mobile and cross-platform games like Epoch and Submerged.

It’s not at all clear what types of games these will be or how far along in the development process any of these studios are, but it’s reassuring to see Stadia get some higher-profile names for its growing lineup. The company poached Sony’s Santa Monica Studio head Shannon Studstill back in March to run its new Playa Vista, California office, and she’s currently working with Stadia’s content chief Jade Raymond on building out an internal studio network to build exclusives that take advantage of Google’s cloud platform.