Splash Damage's party shooter Outcasters will be left to die with Stadia

pcgamer.com:

It was a surprise all around when Google announced in September that the streaming games service Stadia will be closed in early 2023(opens in new tab). Developers have scrambled to come up with solutions for Stadia players: The Stadia launch title Gylt(opens in new tab), for instance, is finally going to other platforms, while CD Projekt recently told Cyberpunk 2077(opens in new tab) players how they can move their Stadia saves to other platforms.

But at least one game will not make the transition: Outcasters, the eight-player party shooter released by Splash Damage in December 2020. The studio initially said it needed «a couple of days to evaluate the options for Outcasters moving forward» following the Stadia closure announcement, and with that time taken it has decided to let the game die.

«It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that we do not have plans to bring Outcasters to other platforms at this time,» the studio said in a message shared on Twitter. «Outcasters was designed and built exclusively for Stadia, with many of its systems heavily reliant on the platform, significantly increasing the complexity of the work required.

»We still firmly believe that cloud gaming has a bright future in our industry, providing easier access to games than ever before, and we are encouraged to see that other platforms still champion the cause."

Google doesn't share data on Stadia games so it's impossible to know what sort of success Outcasters has achieved, but it's understandable that Splash Damage might decide to let it go if the player numbers are too low. At the same time, bringing the game to Steam, Epic, and maybe PC Game Pass would undoubtedly grow the audience—although perhaps not enough to justify the work involved