Borderlands 3 is out on Stadia, but it’s a 2-month-old version that’s capped at 30fps

Maybe it’s just me, but conversation around Google’s gaming platform of the future, Stadia, has fallen off a cliff. Nobody’s talking about Stadia at all anymore – unless things go wrong. There are probably several reasons for that. Stadia has yet to have a wide launch, and it’s available right now only to early adopters. It also doesn’t really have any exclusive games that make it a must-have, aside from Gylt, which has had a middling reception. It also hasn’t really received many new games since its soft launch last month.

While streaming is undoubtedly the future of video gaming, the emphasis has to be on future, because it’s not really that hot right now. Stadia’s just received a trio of new games–I say new, but they’re games already playable elsewhere–but at least one of them isn’t in the state it should be.

Stadia’s received Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Dragonball Xenoverse 2 and Borderlands 3–but Borderlands 3 is a two-month-old build that’s missing recent patches and updates, and even the recently released DLC.

“At launch, the Stadia version of the game will reflect all updates and fixes that were released through October 24,” says 2K in a press release. “Noteworthy features coming to the Stadia version of Borderlands 3 expected in early 2020 include endgame content like the Takedown at the Maliwan Blacksite and Mayhem 4 difficulty, dedicated loot pools for bosses, and additional bank space. The first Borderlands 3 campaign add-on, Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot, is also expected to launch on Stadia in early 2020.”

The game is also capped to 30fps on Stadia, which is baffling given its 10.2TFlop claim. According to google, Stadia’s GPU compute is higher than the Xbox One X and Playstation4 Pro sticky-taped together, so it shouldn’t be forced to run at 30fps. Also one of the main points behind stadia is that games should always be up-to-date with no worry on the user side – so a two-month-old build of a game just seems ridiculous.

Last Updated: December 18, 2019