LG and Google have announced a partnership that will bring the Stadia cloud gaming platform to LG webOS smart TVs in 2021. The partnership represents Google's latest attempt to get its Stadia gaming service to catch on. The idea, it seems, is that integrating the gaming service directly into new TVs will be encouragement enough for new users to give cloud gaming a try.

Launched in November 2019, Google Stadia has endured a tumultuous run as a service capable of streaming games in 4K at 60 frames per second. For many, it was regarded as having launched too early, and clearly hasn't been the popular platform that Google hoped it would be. Several marketing maneuvers have been made to try and help Stadia gain traction, with Google even giving away free controllers and Chromecast Ultras to YouTube Premium subscribers for a period of time. However, it still hasn't been enough to sell gamers on Google Stadia.

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Google's new avenue is through LG, with a joint press release revealing that Stadia will be available on LG webOS smart TVs in the second half of 2021. Despite the ambiguous launch date, LG was pretty clear on which models will get the Stadia update. Only LG smart TVs running webOS 6.0 and webOS 5.0 will receive Google's gaming service. Essentially, webOS 6.0 covers all of LG's 2021 displays while webOS 5.0 includes 2020 LG TVs. Anything older than that won't be able to download the Google Stadia app from the LG Content Store.

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Anything is possible. LG TVs have been favorites of gamers for years thanks to its industry-leading OLED displays, and utilizing Stadia Pro's support for 4K and 5.1 surround sound on these TVs seems like a solid combination. However, if Google expects this will be the missing piece that suddenly solves its Stadia puzzle, it may be mistaken.

Google has gone down this road before. In November, Google announced Stadia would be launching on iOS as a web app. It offered Stadia Pro for two months free back in April, and has struck partnerships with T-Mobile and others. The goal, it seems, has been to make Stadia as accessible as possible in the hopes that as many users as possible would start gaming. Yet, time and time again, it hasn't worked the way Google wanted and if free controllers and Chromecasts weren't enough to convince users to adopt Stadia, there's no specific reason to believe that making the service available at the cost of a newer LG TV is the answer.

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Source: LG