Yes, I was going to post earlier I don't think Stadia will end up with any large non-timed exclusives. The ability to just release to Windows (and Linux and macOS too, now that the clients are being freed of DirectX in favor of cross-platform Vulkan)
Small aside: With how much work Valve (and Google with AMD/EA-DICE by proxy [given they're the ones that made the library anyway]) are doing on Vulkan, you'd think more natural ports would come out day-and-date on Linux. Sadly, that hasn't been the case, AFAIK.
Valve has been trying for *years* and to be fair to them, their efforts have born a *lot* of fruit behind the scenes, but none of it is the type of progress that makes for a flashy headline. I would say Google is very likely building on what Valve's done -- if not technically, then in the sense of "OK all the incumbents have been laughing at Linux gaming for decades, let's fucking do something about it," and actually taking the platform seriously on its own merits.
Google and Valve are also attacking the problem from two separate sides. Valve is trying to get various Linux distributions as they exist today better gaming support, and for them that means: improving emulation, improving drivers, improving compatibility, cutting down on dependencies, etc.
Google's approaching things from the content side instead of the technical, likely winning over developers with cold-hard cash or other kind of guarantees or concessions. AFAIK this is something Valve has never done; they've never paid someone to make a Linux port of their existing game.
Getting Linux gaming off the ground requires
at least both approaches.
Coming back to this:
With how much work Valve (and Google with AMD/EA-DICE by proxy [given they're the ones that made the library anyway]) are doing on Vulkan, you'd think more natural ports would come out day-and-date on Linux.
Who knows, that could be the case going forward, at least for the Vulkan/Stadia versions. Valve's been toiling in the basement shoring up the technical side for literal years, and now Google is forging relationships with publishers compelling them to create Linux versions. Right now these are mostly for after-the-fact ports, but as Google gets more involved in the gaming industry and builds on these relationships, we may see day-one Linux support proliferate.
Capcom taught me in the Wii era that even if something is technically possible, that kinda means jack without the platform holder shaking their ass out going "Oooh please port to me." And Stadia's shaking its ass pretty hard right now.
