Google’s cloud gaming platform Stadia is set to shut down on January 18, 2023. Surviving just over three years, the service just never gained the traction Google hoped it would. I was an early adopter, purchasing a Founders Edition of the service when it was first announced, though admittedly, the novelty of it quickly wore off. One of the draws for me beyond the concept of Stadia was an exclusive launch title called “Gylt.”
I shared my review of the game back in 2020, but essentially, “Gylt” is a horror adventure game that mixes action, stealth, and environmental puzzles in a fantastical world that is both beautiful and dark. In it, you play as Sally, a young girl in search of her cousin Emily. You start the game posting missing posters around your hometown of Bethelwood before being chased away by a group of bullies. During the chase, you fall into a ditch and, in an attempt to find a way home, wind up in a nightmarish alternate reality where you quickly discover your cousin now resides.
While there is nothing groundbreaking about “Gylt,” and it isn’t without its flaws, it was a game I enjoyed playing and wished more people had the opportunity to experience. Three years on, the game is still exclusive to Google Stadia, so when Google announced it was sunsetting the platform in September, I wondered if the game would be lost along with the Google service.
The game’s website looked untouched since its release, and its social channels hadn’t been updated since 2021. And where other developers had put in place some contingency plans for players looking to move to other platforms, news on the “Gylt” front seemed non-existent. That is until I went a bit deeper and checked developer Tequila Works’ website.
On October 4, Tequila Works shared a quick blurb in its news section, letting fans know a bit about the future of the game:
“Spooky season is around the corner… And we bring terrific news! We’ve been working on it for a long time and it’s finally time to make it official: GYLT is going multiplatform in 2023!
Follow the official Tequila Works’ channels on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for updates on GYLT and for more exciting news from the studio.”
So, while there are no specifics on what platforms or when “Gylt” might arrive, there is at least confirmation that the first Stadia exclusive will find new life on additional platforms in the future.
If you want to get a taste of what “Gylt” is like, you can check out the official gameplay trailer below:
