Playing games on Stadia is about to get a whole lot easier for LG smart TV owners. Currently, the only way to access Stadia on a TV properly is through the use of the Chromecast Ultra.
Though you can sideload the Stadia app on Android TV devices and on the new Chromecast with Google TV and things work just fine. But LG is intent on making it even easier to play games on Stadia. You just need to have one of its products.
Today during its multitude of CES announcements, which includes a battery-powered gaming soundbar, LG unveiled that a range of its smart TVs will have native access to Google’s cloud gaming platform.
For Google and the Stadia team, this is big. And for LG, it’s a smart move as LG will be the first TV manufacturer to natively support Stadia access.
Various LG smart TV models can download Stadia from the LG content store
At some point LG may launch new TV models with the Stadia access built right in. But for the time being it’s simply making Stadia available as a downloadable app through the LG content store.
That being said, this won’t be available until late 2021. LG is aiming for a launch sometime in the second half of the year. Which means you can’t actually download Stadia to your LG TV currently. What’s more is that LG hasn’t confirmed any actual dates.
But access won’t be available anytime soon. The good news is that compatibility shouldn’t be a big issue.
Most newer smart TVs from LG should work
LG doesn’t specifically mention any TV models here. It merely states that LG smart TVs will be able to download the Stadia app through the LG content store in the second half of the year.
That likely means that the compatibility list of TVs is pretty widely varied. Though it probably won’t be available on all LG smart TVs since the beginning of time, if you own a more recent smart TV from the brand and it has the latest version of WebOS, you should be able to access the app download when it goes live later this year.
That’s also assuming that LG is able to stick to the timeline and get the Stadia app onto WebOS when it plans to. Either way, this opens the door to a lot more potential Stadia users. Which is great for Stadia as a platform as it continues to grow and grab the attention of more gamers.