Google Stadia Pro Coming November 2019 for $130 Up Front, $10 Monthly with 31 Games at Launch

[Raevenlord]

Google's Stadia platform will be the first serious effort to bring cloud gaming to the masses - a first, real step in a game that Microsoft and Sony are pursuing as well which will change the outlook for entertainment hardware development as we know it. The company has just announced that its Stadia Pro service will be launching come November of this year, with a $130 upfront cost for a Founder's Edition, which includes a limited edition Night Blue Stadia Controller, Chromecast Ultra, a free copy of Destiny 2, and 3 months of Stadia Pro for users and a special friend of theirs.

Besides this Founder's Edition pack, Stadia will be available in two packages. The Pro, which goes for $9.99 a month and allows you to play games up to 4K at 60 FPS with HDR and 5.1 surround, and the base version, which will be free of charge but limited to 1080p 60 FPS. You will always require a Chromecast Ultra and a Stadia controller, which will run you $70 each, though - so if this is up your alley, the Founder's Edition seems like a good setup, including three moths of games and the free-to-play-going Destiny 2. So they're not actually offering a game here - they're offering access to it through their cloud. Remember that unlike other subscription services, excluding free to play games, you'll always have to purchase each game you're going to play on the platform - it will be a digital storefront like any other.





When it comes to connection requirements, Google says users with an up to 1Mbps connection can play games at up to 720p in 60 FPS with smooth gameplay and stereo sound. However, users that want to take advantage of the 4K, 60 FPS, HDR and 5.1 surround will have to have at least a 35Mbps connection - which seems extremely flimsy for the kind of content we're talking about, but Google must know what they're talking about. Perhaps the best way to go about this will be to try out Destiny 2, which will be free, and see if your internet connection serves you right - there are scarcely other titles where you'll be able to see whether the service holds up well enough for serious gaming than that one. But that does mean at least a $130 investment... For a deal where you'll always be on the unsafe side of.

21 publishers have already signed on the service, and will make their games available through the platform - totaling 31 titles in total, including the just-announced Baldur's Gate 3. Perhaps Google knows something we don't about the release date of this little gem? The full list of publishers and respective games can be found below:

• Bandai Namco - Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
• Bethesda - DOOM Eternal, DOOM 2016, Rage 2, The Elder Scrolls Online, Wolfenstein: Youngblood
• Bungie - Destiny 2
• Capcom - TBD
• Coatsink - Get Packed (Stadia exclusive)
• Codemasters - GRID
• Deep Silver - Metro Exodus
• Drool - Thumper
• Electronic Arts - TBD
• Giants Software - Farming Simulator 19
• Larian Studios - Baldur's Gate 3
• nWay Games - Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
• Rockstar Games - TBD
• Sega - Football Manager
• SNK - Samurai Shodown
• Square Enix - Final Fantasy XV, Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• 2K Games - NBA 2K, Borderlands 3
• Tequila Works - Gylt (Stadia exclusive)
• Warner Bros. - Mortal Kombat 11
• THQ - Darksiders Genesis
• Ubisoft - Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Just Dance, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Trials Rising, The Crew 2

Stadia will only be available in the following countries at launch, with a wider worldwide coverage following: Belgium, Finland, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the USA.

Check out the full Stadia livestream where these details where announced below:

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Finally , details, I'm not sure I like them though I'll wait on reviews, and it's certainly not what I expected.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

I can't see many people going for this, not when you have to purchase the games, what happens if Stadia doesn't do well and eventually folds? can you transfer the game licenses over to another platform? Doesn't seem likely, or you could just buy a console for double the cost of the founders edition and no subs (barring psn and xbox live though these aren't a requirement for console gaming.) and keep the games you purchase. They should have stuck with a pure subcription version, I honestly can't see this gaining all that much traction and will likely be another Google company fail in a couple of years

 

[trparky]

ExtremeTech is reporting that if you use this service you better not have a data usage cap because it'll blow through a 1 TB cap like nobody's business if you like to play at 4K.

 

[xkm1948]

Yeah naw dog, this is gonna fail on their face really fast.

 

[Axaion]

I hate this fad, and i hate battle royale games along with MTX

 

[v12dock]

I don't see this failing simply because it's the first cloud streaming gaming platform in which developers specifically program around. Google dropped a bomb on DX12 since Stadia is using Vulken, if you are going to develop for Stadia along with PC why would you do PC on DX12 and Stadia on Vulken just simply keep Vulken.

 

[Mussels]

these are... bad prices

 

[lexluthermiester]

these are... bad prices

Completely agree. Not a good platform.

 

[rtwjunkie]

This just gets better and better. First it was subscription, which I and many expected, like a Netflix. Then it was pay for the games as well.

Now, a $130 startup fee?

I’m very glad I’ve got hardware to actually play games better than this streaming will likely play. I feel sorry for those that have inconsistent, or capped, or slow internet (half the U.S.) and also don’t have any real PC gaming capable computers. They won’t even get to use this, really.

 

[Paganstomp]

 

[sutyi]

Completely agree. Not a good platform.

Yeah... 510USD in the first year of service if you counting the the controller, the CC Ultra and one year worth of subscription. At that price might as well just wait and buy the new PS5...

 

[silentbogo]

Yeah, as optimistic as I am about cloud gaming, I don't think this will get them too far.
Our only hope is MS+Sony. Maybe they will finally figure out that OnLive approach was the best and all they have to do is make it faster and better.
Just gimme something like 60 hours/month with a low flat fee, unlimited access to the entire game library, put some servers in Eastern Europe (so I don't have to suffer through unbearable pings in Munich or Amsterdam), and you've got yourself a customer.

You will always require a Chromecast Ultra and a Stadia controller, which will run you $70 each, though

It's $60 for Chromecast Ultra on Goolge store, and $70 for a controller (which looks suspiciously similar to my Steelseries Stratus XL, only with even shittier rounded buttons/triggers).
Even with these overpriced peripherals it's still a value that makes some sort of sense, since you get 3-mo Pro subscription, and another 3-mo buddy pass with it for free. The only problem is that Pro access doesn't really give you jack shit in terms of games.

Yeah... 510USD in the first year of service if you counting the the controller, the CC Ultra and one year worth of subscription. At that price might as well just wait and buy the new PS5...

Both are included in $130 bundle. So the first year is $220.
I know it's bad, but no need to be excessively dramatic about it.

 

[IvI]

Completely agree. Not a good platform.

Every 2-4 years we spend around 2.5k$ on PC upgrades to able play at 4k 60fps. For this price you can get 250 months to use Google service without headache of high electricity bills or your system not beenig able to run latest games on 4k 60fps. In my opinion its very good value for money in long term.

 

[GreiverBlade]

Pricing wise ... no interest, library wise... no interest. evolving capability: nil (i want my games to be mod'able for those who are and Stream platform will shut that down ... thus zero interest).
Now now, there is an interest for some ... but seeing how major actors behind the games act ... they will take the fact "that some might need it" as "everyone wants it" most likely.


I buy my games i own my games i mod my games i play my games (aside online games where i just own fancy boxes of collectors editions) ... i don't want to rent a game streaming service, plus buying the games and have zero control over it aside graphical and other basic settings ...

For mobile games, it's another story since i don't rent now own them or anything in them and pay whenever i want to show some support to a awesome dev who did a wonderful F2P that deserve it.

Every 2-4 years we spend around 2.5k$ on PC upgrades to able play at 4k 60fps. For this price you can get 250 months to use Google service without headache of high electricity bills or your system not beenig able to run latest games on 4k 60fps. In my opinion its very good value for money in long term.

we? ... again ... some might need/want it, just like Stadia, but do not generalize.

the 4k argument slip over me ... 2.5/3k 75hz ftw

 

[Wyverex]

Not that it's gonna be available in my country any time soon, but I'm really not interested in having input delay / ping in single player games.

I'm perfectly happy playing games locally on my PC with less than max details.

 

[Vayra86]

Here, take this gaming sub, its only the price of a full year's worth of MMO subscriptions, and then you have exactly nothing yet. You can even bring your friends to own nothing together!



'Streaming is great, much cheaper than buying that PC on your own'

Mhm! I love this new economy of no ownership. Real efficient! What a joke

 

[dorsetknob]

The company has just announced that its Stadia Pro service will be launching come November of this year, with a $130 upfront cost for a Founder's Edition, which includes a limited edition Night Blue Stadia Controller, Chromecast Ultra, a free copy of Destiny 2, and 3 months of Stadia Pro for users and a special friend of theirs.

Besides this Founder's Edition pack, Stadia will be available in two packages. The Pro, which goes for $9.99 a month and allows you to play games up to 4K at 60 FPS with HDR and 5.1 surround, and the base version, which will be free of charge but limited to 1080p 60 FPS. You will always require a Chromecast Ultra and a Stadia controller, which will run you $70 each

Useless overpriced hardware
expensive online fee's

I Expect this will be a massive Failure
( and the cynic in me expects that this is a planned failure so google can write off exaggerated / exorbitant losses against Taxes).

 

[Dexiefy]

Ehh, not really impressive.
What's the point of using it? Who is it targetted at?
PC owners won't swap to it as there is literally no point. Instead of investing in stadia it's better to just upgrade the PC.
Console owners have literally no reason to swap to it unless they want the 4k gaming, for which they need pretty damn good connection. Console users generally don't care for such technicalities, they just want to turn the console on and play. The moment they will buy Stadia, hoping to play 4k and find out they need to suddenly upgrade their connection they will return it in an instant.
I also can't imagine how someone who does not own gaming PC or gaming console would choose Stadia over other options.

Upfront ~150$ investment, then sub fee or free (for 1080p).
Game graphical settings are probably not going to be high-ultra but more like low-med.
Then you need solid, stable connection with no limits on it.
Limited to a specific controller, or at least appears that way and if it is, that means no KB+Mouse, so library of games shrinks drastically.
And then as adding insult to injury you have to buy the games anyway...

What is the point of going for this solution rather than a console or a pc? I see absolutely no actual benefits of this.

If a person would be able to play any game in the library they feel like without purchasing, use any controller they want (all those xbox/ps controllers people have at homes) for 10$ a month then I can see how it would be an attractive option. Buying the game in my opinion is too much too ask for a game streaming service.

Invest some more, buy a console and then buy games you want. You pay more than for Stadia, sure. But you have no need to invest into better connection, have no sub fee, have better system for family&friends gaming, you physically own the games you've purchased, you don't have to worry about any lag or service delivery problems and you have way bigger library of games.

 

[dirtyferret]

I'll pass but if they ever managed to get rid of the high start up fee I could see it working to a point with the casual crowd.

 

[trparky]

If you ask me this is DOA.

 

[Mussels]

The only way this would work is if it was like netflix, flat $9.99? a month with no setup fee (unless you count buying a chromecast/controller)

 

[Steevo]

I'm more interested in the change in programming and rendering this could kick off.

 

[dorsetknob]

Stadia a wan Device with no local Storage

The experience will be powered by the following specs:

• Custom x86 processor clocked at 2.7GHz w/ AVX2 SIMD and 9.5MB of L2+L3 cache
• Custom AMD GPU w/ HBM2 memory, 56 compute units, and 10.7TFLOPs
• 16GB of RAM (shared between CPU and GPU), up to 484GB/s of bandwidth
• SSD cloud storage

 

[Basard]

It's like saying it's cheaper to just rent your home..... Yeah, your home/land doesn't lose value like computer parts, but still--they don't do it out of the goodness of their hearts, they do it to make money.