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Stadia's store will support trials and demos, gifting, wishlists, pre-orders, and tons of other lists

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Stadia launched in what what most would consider a very unfinished state, missing many plenty of the announced features like family sharing and broadcasting, or with very rushed and incomplete features like screenshots or a game store. Shopping for games initially required the smartphone app, but the store launched on the web last week, opening the door to a more convenient shopping experience. It also reveals a bit more about some of the marketing and categorization we'll see as the Stadia catalog fills out.

The roll call of titles is currently at 23 games (not counting multiple editions), so there's not much need for a list that splits them, but that's obviously not going to remain true for long. Through some experimentation on the store URLs, more than 100 pages were discovered that will be used to present games based on popularity, features, genre, publisher, and deals. There are also a few lists that confirm some notable upcoming features, like wishlists, trials and demos, and pre-orders.

For a quick refresher, four lists can be found in the web interface now, including a full list, a couple for recommendations, and one that lists the games available with Stadia Pro.

While those pages currently show a number of games, all of the other pages are currently empty. However, the names aren't hard to decipher, and most of them can be broken up into some natural categories. There are plenty of standard groups, like general recommendations, popular titles, top sellers, and those that highlight certain features (e.g. best 4K). You'll also find pages for games from major publishers like 2K, Bethesda, and Square Enix. And to round it out, there's a large list of 56 genres with everything from action and adventure to visual novels and trivia.

Recommendations

Popularity

Shopping

Teasers

Feature Highlights

Miscellaneous

Publishers

Genres

Special

The big notable lists in this group are the ones that reference upcoming features, like a list of the Most gifted games, confirming that gifting will be supported. And I think we all expected Stadia to offer Demos and Trials for some games, but now it's safe to assume those will begin appearing eventually. Pre-orders were also a given, and like most other services, there is a special Your wishlist page where you can find games you've earmarked to pick up.

Stadia will highlight games that are Popular on YouTube, and there will be a section dedicated to Stadia exclusives. Titles with major updates and new content will be shown in Recently Updated, New add-ons, and Expansions. It looks like there will also be a space oriented toward groups of games that belong together as a Collection or Compilation.

And finally, a look through the genres is somewhat enlightening. Some of the obvious groupings include Adventure, Platformer, and Sports; and since there was inexplicably some doubt about this, there are even multiple categories dedicated to getting lots of people together: MMO games, MMORPGs, and MOBA games. You'll also find some entries that don't fall into the classic categories but have earned groups of dedicated fans like Dating simulations and Visual novel. There's a lot of overlap in the list, but with 56 genre pages ready to go, Stadia clearly expects to cover most interests.

Naturally, this list is subject to change and there's plenty of room for it to grow as new requirements come up. There will be more entries as major publishers sign on, new game categories catch on, and somebody in marketing concocts a new way to pitch games — let's say, seasonal and holiday-themes...

In the meantime, let's get back to looking forward to new games and features. I'm still waiting to see how Stadia tackles livestreaming to an audience.

Via:
Stadia Source,
zMattyPower,
reddit