Google's upcoming paid 'Stadia Pro' subscription will offer 'roughly' one free game per...

[Polycount]

In context: There's plenty of cautious optimism surrounding Google's upcoming 'Stadia' game streaming service, and with so many major AAA publishers pledging their support for the project, it isn't hard to see why. In theory, users with a decent internet connection could enjoy high-fidelity, AAA 60 FPS gaming across a wide variety of devices; including smartphones, tablets, TVs, low-end PCs, and more.

Think of Stadia as a free virtual console in and of itself (but one you still need to buy games and controllers for), and you won't be far off the mark. However, obviously, Google wouldn't be able to support such a service without some kind of return on its investment -- not in the long run, anyway.

That's where the Stadia Pro plan comes in. The service will run you $10 a month and give you access to a better, faster overall gaming experience, including 5.1 audio support and 4K. That isn't all, though: Stadia Director of Product Andrey Doronichev dropped another interesting Pro feature tidbit during a Reddit AMA today.

According to Doronichev, the Stadia Pro plan will give you "roughly" one free game a month (to keep, presumably) just for staying subscribed. Doronichev says this is not a "Netflix for Games" approach like some believe, but something more akin to PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold.

The first free game on offer is Destiny 2; which is somewhat amusing given that the game is already set to go free-to-play on September 17.

Doronichev also addressed some other key questions users had about Stadia. He confirmed that the service will not support Bluetooth on launch (but it may at a later date), and users who purchase games will retain access to them even if Stadia is shut down at some point. He did not elaborate on how that process would work, which may be a red flag for some.

Unlike Steam (to name one example), Stadia relies almost entirely on cloud servers to operate. Without those servers, it's unclear how users could possibly access their game libraries.

Perhaps there's a clause in Stadia's publisher/developer contracts that require them to offer users Steam, Origin, Uplay, or other platform-specific keys if Google's ambitious service is discontinued? Only time will tell.

Regardless, if Stadia sounds like your cup of tea, you can pre-order a "Founder's Edition" for $129 to get access to a Founder's badge, a controller, three months of Stadia Pro, a "Buddy Pass" (whatever that is) and a "Stadia Name." Additional controllers will run you $69 each. Stadia as a whole is expected to launch sometime this November.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/81048-google-upcoming-paid-tadia-pro-subscription-offer-roughly.html

 

[Footlong]

People will be willing to forgive that one game per month if they are AAA and recent. I still don't see the market in the US and Western Europe, since those market can afford a console anyway. If they market this service in Africa, Latin America and southeast Asia that would make sense.
Right now Google Stadia seems like selling ice cream in the Russian winter. You must be really into ice cream if you still carve for that under those conditions.

 

[Manu Arg]

People will be willing to forgive that one game per month if they are AAA and recent. I still don't see the market in the US and Western Europe, since those market can afford a console anyway. If they market this service in Africa, Latin America and southeast Asia that would make sense.
Right now Google Stadia seems like selling ice cream in the Russian winter. You must be really into ice cream if you still carve for that under those conditions.

The thing is that if you can afford the needed internet connection for this service, it's most likely that you can afford a PC/console anyway, at least here in Argentina.

 

[Lounds]

I can totally see Valve coming up with a streaming service for steam.

 

[Uncle Al]

It's' been tried before years ago with application software, games, etc. and it failed miserably. One of the main reasons was a lack of variety to choose from and after awhile people just got tired of shelling out the $$. It was tried again where you "rented" the software and could accumulate more and more but people didn't like the idea of being tied to the company, knowing they would lose everything if they missed a payment or just quit.

These foolish attempts are all to similar to those "loot boxes", trying to create a constant cash stream for the companies with not a great deal of effort. When you look at games like Fallout 4, there is a ton of money to be made legitimately by adding to the existing game with more and larger maps, missions, etc, etc. and when they significantly alter the game like Fallout 76 with no way to play it as a single player (without significant diminishing the entire thing) they only cut their own throats.

For all the money they collect you would think they would have figured out how to put out surveys asking what customers want and focus groups to validate it by age group, etc.

It make take awhile but in the long run this one will probably be another looser and they will blame it on a lack of customer support rather than recognize it hasn't worked in the past for all the same reasons.