Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service is finally coming to more big screens later this month. Starting on June 23, Stadia will become available on the Google Chromecast with Google TV, Nvidia Shield, Xiaomi MIBOX3 and MIBOX4, and other compatible Android TV devices.
Some Android Smart TVs from HiSense and Philips are also getting support for Stadia on June 23, and Google said today that it expects “millions more TVs” to support Stadia “in a few short weeks.” Google is also allowing consumers with unsupported Android TV devices to opt in to test an experimental version of Stadia, though the experience may not be top-notch as Google is still developing the service.
This is still a big milestone for Stadia, which initially launched on the Chromecast Ultra (which doesn’t run Android TV or the new Google TV experience), PCs with a Google Chrome browser, and Android devices. Google later iOS support via the web, similar to what Microsoft did with its own Xbox Cloud Gaming (Project xCloud) service.
Microsoft is still in the process of bringing Xbox Cloud Gaming to PCs and iOS devices, and the service still has no TV presence to this day. Stadia still has the advantage of being more ubiquitous, but Xbox Cloud Gaming remains much more attractive to its growing catalog of Xbox games for a low monthly price, with many of these games getting support for touch controls on phones and tablets.