One of the highest-ratedGoogle Stadiaexclusives is officially headed to mainstream consoles. The service officially shut down on January 18th, 2023, and whileGoogle hasn’t given up on its foray into gaming, the fate of a small chunk of Stadia’s library remains in question.
Google Stadiafirst released in 2019 as part of the cloud gaming boom. The original plan was for Stadia to differentiate itself from its rivals by mostly featuring games developed in-house and not relying as much on third-party releases. While the plan was ultimately scrapped, one exclusive that did come to fruition is a survival horror title by the name ofGylt, developed by Tequila Works. The game centers on a girl named Sally who enters a horrific parallel world in search of her cousin with only a flashlight (and later a fire extinguisher) to defend herself with.
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As announced via the official Tequila Works YouTube channel,Gyltis reported to be dropping on every modern platform, with the one exception being the Nintendo Switch. Accompanied by Sally’s narration alongside eerie orchestral music and piano riffs, the trailer shows off the game’s simple, stylized art style and dreary color palette, highlighting various moments of gameplay mixed in with cutscenes. It’s certainly a unique title based on that combination of traits, and while it waspreviously announced for a multi-platform release, it’s nice to finally get some further confirmation about it.
Upon release,Gyltinitially garnered mixed reception from game critics, who praised its presentation, soundtrack, and gameplay, but found the game to lack the thrills that its genre is known for. Further criticism was directed at its slow story pacing and linearity, while some even noted that they were misled by the presentation, misconstruing it as a game for kids. Still, as the first Stadia exclusive to come out, and one of the few it ultimately got, it’s only natural thatGyltwould garner an audience. Judging by the comments on the announcement, a lot of fans seem to have enjoyed the game and are excited that it didn’t fall by the wayside, while others who didn’t play it were still intrigued by what they saw.
With the Google Stadia officially dead,save for its controllers gaining Bluetooth support(and thus compatibility with other consoles), the fate of its other exclusive titles was initially unclear. Games such asSuper Bomberman R Online,Submerged: Hidden Depths, andLost Words: Beyond the Pagewent multi-platform well before the shutdown was announced, leavingGyltas one of the last ones to go. Games becoming lost to time is nothing new, but thankfully the Stadia’s handful of exclusives didn’t meet the same fate.
Gyltwill release for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on May 15, 2025.
