Google Hopes Cross-Progression Will Be Standard For Stadia Titles

Google is prepping to go headfist into cloud gaming with their Stadia service. Whether it will fall flat on its face or be the beacon for a new era in the gaming industry remains to be seen. But whatever you say about it, you have to admit it’s an ambitious plan from the multimedia giant. And one idea they have is wanting cross progression across the board.

In the latest StadiaCast, John Justice said Google wanted to have cross progression across all Stadia titles. He hopes that with next gen coming for consoles, and the general openness of game development evolving, that means Google can accomplish that lofty goal with their push to standardize cross progression system. While he doesn’t name names, he also seems to imply some companies are already on board.

“We are trying to do that with every single title we’re bringing to Stadia, so that’s something that we see as a key piece of next-gen,” he said. “So we’re trying to push that next-gen is all about openness, it’s about being able to play across your friends groups, it’s about taking down these walled gardens, it’s about being able to keep your progression wherever it is you are.

“Whether it’s a single player or a multiplayer [game] you want to keep that progress going, so we’re trying to get that everywhere. Not every game platform is wholly on board with this, and some of them are on board with it for some titles and not for others, so we are pushing it forward, we’re working with developers and we’re trying to move the rest of the game platforms there.”

It’s an ambitious idea, and it would be great to see, but one that’s hard to imagine happening in the near future. While the general structure of the industry has become significantly more open over the last few years, we still aren’t even at a point where things like crossplay is anything close to a standard. But, when it comes to technology, things certainly can move fast, so who knows. Right now we’ll just have to wait for Stadia to actually launch and see where it’ll land.