Google gets Serious Sam 4 as a Stadia exclusive this August

[Cal Jeffrey]

In brief: It looks like Serious Sam 4 will only be available on PC and Stadia — at least at first. Shortly after the game was announced with a short teaser in 2018, the little information we were able to get on the title since indicated Croteam would developing it on all platforms. That has not changed, but when PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will get it has.

Google was able to convince publisher Devolver Digital to make Serious Sam 4 a Stadia exclusive for one year. This agreement did not affect the PC release.

On Wednesday, Croteam announced that the game was coming to Stadia, but did not mention it being an exclusive. Devolver Digital told Kotaku that it still plans to release the title on home consoles, but has put that off until 2021.

"The game is still coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 after its period of exclusivity is over with Stadia," said a spokesperson.

Along with the announcement, Croteam released a new trailer with Sam riding a Sirian Werebull into the camera. In addition to the teaser, the studio dropped several clips of gameplay showcasing battles, enemies, weapons, and game music. It also gave a quick intro into something it calls the "Legion System" (video above).

According to Croteam's Graphics Engineer Dean Sekulić, the Legion System allows the game to have "hundreds of thousands" of enemies on the screen at once.

"We were really pleasantly surprised at how fast it can run," said Sekulić. "Originally, we were hoping for like 10,000 enemies, and now we have hit an order of magnitude more."

Devolver does not have an exact release date nailed down yet, only saying that it was coming first to Stadia and PC in August with PS4 and XB1 versions arriving next year.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/85314-google-gets-serious-sam-4-stadia-exclusive-august.html

 

[CrisisDog]

The studio has been a big supporter of Linux in the past. I wonder if that will be a day one launch option as well. I hear Stadia is mostly Linux, so I would assume it shouldn’t be too much of a leap to have something ready...

 

[Alex Voinica]

It doesn't look very good at this point, but I'll give it a try.

 

[OortCloud]

I give Stadia 2 years tops. The money they are throwing at it and the mediocre at best reception it has got...

 

[neeyik]

I give Stadia 2 years tops. The money they are throwing at it and the mediocre at best reception it has got...

And yet it should be quite good for what it is: access to reasonable hardware and a (small) library of games, at a monthly cost of $10. But then you try it, and it's just....yuck. It's just not good enough to make people sit up and go 'Wow! I definitely want to have that'

 

[OortCloud]

And yet it should be quite good for what it is: access to reasonable hardware and a (small) library of games, at a monthly cost of $10. But then you try it, and it's just....yuck. It's just not good enough to make people sit up and go 'Wow! I definitely want to have that'

I think people are still more comfortable buying a console/pc and maybe subscribing to a service like Game Pass etc to download games they can play remotely without the need for a ludicrously fast and low latency and always-available internet connection. I think it's probably 5 years ahead of its time.

 

[BadThad]

Yes, Serious Sam! I love the series!

 

[bdlflt]

Whoa, watch the video. ~38 seconds in is a fly-over of a field with so many enemies. So. Many. Enemies. Looks wild and perfect for the Serious Sam series.

I'm excited to play on Stadia personally - shouldn't be any slow-down due to enemies on screen (and I don't have a gaming pc or new console).

 

[Porkous]

In the series, it was awesome when you felt as if you are on the run, getting away, and through unimaginable number of challenges. I hope they keep that feel of scale, where a question mark appears, how is he going to get pass though all those obstacles.... Then you know, because... Serious Sam.

The point with stadia, I believe, is also to offer games that stream through ads, afaik they did this on mobile, and is pretty neat. You can try a title without downloading it, is seamless. I hope they do this through stadia, and maybe change the title of the platform to stadia games, because would have more impact and meaning imo.