The Quarry and High On Life were Google Stadia exclusives

This story about standing out, boiled down, in 1:36 minutes.

What's the fuss?

One brand new game and one upcomer were originally intended to be exclusive releases for Google's game streaming service, which didn't go so well.

The situation

When Google Stadia released in 2019, it formally entered as a competitor into the gaming space - specifically within cloud gaming.

The service is capable of streaming games over the cloud at up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second, offering a free tier and a premium tier that unlocks specific features.
Google Stadia received poor reviews upon release, leading to a lack of users and failing to meet their revenue targets by a wide amount.

Due to these failures, Stadia was forced to scale back their plans on developing their own games and to forgo acquiring exclusive games from third-party developers.

One of these games was the recently released The Quarry, a narrative, decision-making game that puts the players in the shoes of teenagers who must survive a horrific night at a rural quarry.
The other game is the upcoming High On Life, a comedic first person shooter from the creator of the acclaimed show Rick and Morty.

Boiling it down

With an increasing number of gaming platforms on the market, having platform-exclusive games is a key marketing tactic to attract and retain consumers.

This is the reason why the Nintendo Switch is still sold out 5 years later since gamers can't play franchises like Super Mario or Pokémon anywhere else.
As the new kid on the block, Google correctly saw exclusivity as a way to stand out before fizzling out due to other failures.

The parties behind The Quarry and High on Life may have dodged a bullet here.

If both of these games remained under the Google Stadia umbrella they either would not see many players, be subject to poor performance, or be mismanaged by Google itself.

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