Over 4,000 game developers have applied for Google Stadia partner program
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Love it or loathe it, streaming technology such as Google Stadia places more power and control into developers hands than ever before. Plenty would argue too much control, when zero files are stored locally, but it’s understandable why the developers themselves would have a keen interest in what cloud gaming offers.
On that front, Google Stadia appears to be getting off to a blistering start. More than 4,000 developers have already applied to become part of the Stadia Partners program, signaling their interest in bringing their games to Google’s fledgling platform.
“We’ve had more than 4,000 companies apply for access to Stadia and every single one of them is reviewed by a human,” said Stadia’s technical account manager, Sam Corcoran, during a session at the Develop: Brighton 2019 conference.
It’s particularly interesting that there’s a human allegedly behind each and every one of these application reviews as well. Google’s one of the most faceless, algorithm-crunching companies in existence (ask any YouTuber struggling with copyright strikes) yet it sounds as if they’re taking a more hands-on, curated approach to Stadia. “Someone is reading, so put some thought into that application,” Corcoran reminded developers.
Google Stadia’s doors are open to game developers then, and they’re flung particularly wide for any devs who can take into account the wide-ranging and versatile devices which Stadia will run on. “Think about if that does anything particular for your game. If access from any device has an impact on the design of your game. And also, what new opportunities are out there thanks to that ease of access.”
From the developer angle, Google Stadia already appears to be a hit. There’s a long, long way to go in terms of acceptance from the consumer side, however. All eyes are on that November launch window now.
