Doom Eternal and Serious Sam 4 add Stadia exclusive features

Over 20 Stadia games use the streaming service's unique features.

What you need to know

• The Stadia versions of Doom Eternal and Serious Sam 4 have added exclusive features not found on other platforms.
• Doom Eternal players can share their Horde Mode challenges with State Share, and YouTube streamers can play Serious Sam 4 with their audience using Crowd Play.
• There are now 24 games in the Stadia catalog that use the platform's exclusive features such as Crowd Choice, Crowd Play, State Share, and Stream Connect.

Google revealed today that Bethesda's Doom Eternal and Croteam's Serious Sam 4 will take advantage of Stadia exclusive features with State Share and Crowd Play, respectively.

Doom Eternal released its appropriately themed 6.66 update today with two new master levels, a refreshed version of its Battlemode, and the new Horde mode. The single-player, arcade-styled Horde mode offers waves of enemies to defeat to earn player skins and high scores, and Stadia players can now use the State Share feature to share specific challenges from the mode with other players.

Players accessing a Horde mode screenshot or video clip from friends or the community are taken to the start of that exact Horde game with the same weapons and loadout in a contest to beat the high score. It's worth noting that Stadia users will need to own Doom Eternal to play from screenshots or clips.

Meanwhile, the Stadia version of Serious Sam 4 added Crowd Play, allowing YouTube streamers who signed up last July for the feature currently in beta to play the game with viewers with a simple invite. Enabling Crowd Play will set up a lobby and viewers watching the YouTube livestream can join a queue until it is their turn to play alongside the streamer in Campaign or Survival modes.

Google noted that 24 Stadia games in its catalog now include the platform's Crowd Choice, Crowd Play, State Share, and Stream Connect features. While it is not an extremely long list of games that have Stadia exclusive features, it does include some of the best Stadia games such as Baldur's Gate 3 and Mortal Kombat 11.

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Play and Watch with Google TV Package is the latest bundle that contains the Chromecast with Google TV and a Stadia controller to easily get into playing Stadia games on the television.