Google has always wanted its cloud game-streaming service, Stadia, to change how YouTube streamers interact with their fans. Nearly ten months after release, Google is finally bringing its “Crowd Choice” feature to its first two games. Crowd Choice allows viewers to vote on, say, which team a streamer joins in the game, which piece of dialogue they pick, or other in-game choices the player might make. The streamer can ultimately decide if they want to follow the audience’s suggestion or make their own choice.
On October 1st, Dead by Daylight will launch on Stadia Pro, and it will be the first game to integrate Crowd Choice. In Dead by Daylight, the feature gives the audience a chance to vote whether the streamer should be a “killer” who is tasked with killing the other players in the match or one of the four “survivors” that is trying to evade or run away. As you can see below, Dead by Daylight’s Crowd Choice shows what percent of the audience voted for each role.
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On October 6th, Baldur’s Gate 3 will be the second game to support the feature. Unlike Dead by Daylight, which is an asymmetric survival horror game, Baldur’s Gate 3 is an RPG with the option to play solo or online with other players. When Crowd Choice is enabled, the streamer’s audience can vote on what narrative decisions the creator should make to progress the story. In Baldur’s Gate 3, Google says “everything from who your character falls in love with, to which friend becomes a foe can be decided by viewers.”
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Despite not being a Stadia player myself, I’d like to watch a Stadia streamer play Baldur’s Gate 3 so I can vote on the goofiest dialogue option for them to choose.
Alongside Dead by Daylight, Stadia’s paid Pro subscription is also adding five additional games to its library on October 1st — Human: Fall Flat, Superhot: Mind Control Delete, Lara Croft: Temple of Osiris, Celeste, and Jotun.
Stadia’s one-year anniversary is coming up in a few months, and it looks like it’ll have more serious competition: the cloud gaming market has recently started heating up with the announcement of Amazon’s Luna and the release of Microsoft’s xCloud.
