One of the big selling points of Google's Stadia game streaming platform is that it takes the hassle out of playing games. You don't need the hardware, or the game locally installed. You don't even need to update it. At least in theory. That's not playing out so well in practice, as the copy of Borderlands 3 that you can play on Stadia right now is far from the latest version. In fact, it's a full two months out of date.
It's not quite the launch version of the game, which came out in Mid-September, but the copy of Borderlands 3 that's on Stadia is from October 24, according to Gearbox, There are other limitations too, beyond updates and bug fixes. The 4K version of the game is limited to 30 FPS, despite promises to the contrary from Google over the past few months. 1080p can still hit 60 FPS, but there are no higher frame rate options available at this time.
Gearbox is reportedly working with Google to fix these problems, and expects to bring the game up to parity with the console and PC versions by "early 2020", though it wouldn't be more specific at this time.
The one upside to Borderlands 3 on Stadia right now is that it's cheaper. It debuted with a 35 percent price cut compared to the game on Steam. This is contrary to what we've seen with other games on Stadia, where the likes of Darksiders Genesis debuted with a price increase of $10 over the Steam version — matching its price on consoles like the Xbox One and PS4.
