A lot of empty stadia seats –
Thumper hasn’t been a big draw for Stadia’s seemingly limited player base.
Kyle Orland – Jan , (9:) (UTC UTC)
The Stadia Pro player base may also include many users who have already enjoyed Thumper on other platforms. Stadia subscribers that already played the game on Windows, PS4 (and PSVR), Oculus headsets, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, or iOS in recent years probably aren’t in the market for a streaming copy, even if it’s free. If that’s the case, though, it calls into question the real value of a legacy title like Thumper as a Stadia Pro freebie. there also may be some Stadia Pro subscribers who simply haven’t used the service at all in January and thus haven’t been able to play the game. But a large group of such “inactive” Stadia subscribers so soon after launch wouldn’t be a great sign for the service’s long-term health (if you’re among that group, you still have a chance to log in and redeem a great game
Caveats aside, the low player numbers for Thumper on Stadia aren’t a good sign for a service that attracted widespread criticism in multiple launch-day reviews and is receiving (growing impatience) from many early adopters hoping for a larger game library. If a game that Google is literally giving away is only attracting a few thousand players on Stadia, we have to wonder how many sales publishers are seeing for full-cost streaming titles that can run up to $ 99. Perhaps titles that launch on Stadia on the same day as other platforms (or potential future Stadia exclusives may have an easier time attracting new streaming players. Maybe Google’s planned (launch of a free Stadia tier that doesn’t require a monthly fee will increase the total customer base for the service’s games. Maybe Thumper ‘s twitchy, trippy rhythm-action gameplay is less appealing on Stadia than it was on other platforms.
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