'The Division 2' hits Stadia with PC cross-play on March 17th

Back in June 2019, Google and Ubisoft announced that The Division 2 would come to Stadia. It's been nine months, but the game will finally launch on Google's game streaming service on March 17th. The open world squad-based game was one of the bigger hits of last year, garnering lots of positive reviews and plenty of players teaming up online. For those who already have the PC version of the game, the Stadia version will allow for cross-save functionality. More importantly, it will feature cross-play with PC gamers. This is important because of the relatively low adoption rates of Stadia. If few people are playing an online co-op game, there won't be many gamers to team up with.

Stadia gamers experienced this problem with Destiny 2. The lack of cross-play meant that they were only playing with other Stadia users -- of which there were few. This made matchmaking -- and progressing through the game -- difficult. With cross-play enabled on The Division 2, this shouldn't be an issue. Players will just have to link their Uplay and Stadia accounts to enable the cross-play and cross-save features.

Stadia is in desperate need of quality titles, so The Division 2 is a welcome addition to the lineup, and the cross-play functionality sweetens the deal. The plot of the game, which focuses on rebuilding the Washington D.C. area after a devastating viral outbreak also seems topical.