The new Chromecast with Google TV boasts features like an improved UI that offers all your content on one screen and a watchlist that you can add shows to from your phone or laptop. But there's one big feature missing from the device.
Google has confirmed that Stadia will not work on the Chromecast with Google TV at launch. Instead, Google says that support for Stadia on the new Chromecast will launch in the first half of 2021.
It's kind of strange to see Google launch a new Chromecast device without support for its Stadia game streaming service. Not only has Stadia seemed to be a big deal for Google, with the company regularly updating Stadia with new features and rolling out new games on the service, but Stadia launched with support for the Chromecast Ultra that launched back in 2016 and even sells a Stadia Premiere Edition bundle with that device included.
While you can sideload the Stadia app onto the devices running Android TV, which also runs underneath the Google TV interface on the new Chromecast, the experience isn't perfect. Android Police notes that there's input lag and that images are slow to load, and so it sounds like Google's got some work to do before officially bringing Stadia to the new Chromecast with Google TV next year.