Google have announced the Google Stadia Pro subscription will be free for two months, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement from Vice President and General Manager of Google Stadia Phil Harrison (via press release and on Google’s blog) states that the decision wasmotivated by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re facing some of the most challenging times in recent memory. Keeping social distance is vital,” Harrison states, “but staying home for long periods can be difficult and feel isolating. Video games can be a valuable way to socialize with friends and family when you’re stuck at home, so we’re giving gamers in 14 countries free access to Stadia Pro for two months. This is starting today and rolling out over the next 48 hours.”
Those who sign up will get access to nine games, “including GRID, Destiny 2: The Collection, and Thumper,” and games purchased will remain on the system even when a subscription runs out or is cancelled.
For those who are already a Stadia Pro subscriber, the next two months will not be charged. The usual subscription fee is $9.99 a month.
While the 14 countries have not been named, we imagine this will include the United States, and European countries. We will keep you informed as we learn more.
Finally, Harrison states that Google Stadia will set the default screen resolution to 1080p, rather than 4K, due to the increased demand of internet traffic worldwide.
“With increased demand due to more people at home during this time, we’re taking a responsible approach to internet traffic. For Stadia, we’ve always adjusted bandwidth use based on a variety of in-home and local internet factors. To reduce load on the internet further, we’re working toward a temporary feature that changes the default screen resolution from 4k to 1080p. The vast majority of people on a desktop or laptop won’t notice a significant drop in gameplay quality, but you can choose your data usage options in the Stadia app.”
Google Stadia has faced an uphill battle since its inception. From the concept of cloud gaming when less people than you think can have a stable internet connection (let alone a fast one), combined with their launch line up being made up of older titles at full price.
Insistence the console would use “negative latency“ and input prediction to be “faster than local consoles” were also mocked.
The console itself then suffered a litany of launch issues, and would later overheat Chromecast Ultra units, and not offering true 4K resolution. Google denied both of the latter claims, despite evidence to the contrary.
This was further compounded by a lack of new titles, exclusive titles, and titles overall. Even developers and publishers lacked incentive to make games for the system.
Nonetheless, could this be the big break Google were hoping for? What do you think? Sound off in the comments below!
You can find the guide for how to sign up to the subscription in the blog post here.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic (also known as COVID-19 officially, or Chinese Flu to others) has affected many worldwide, from businesses to public gatherings and events. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. This includes the postponement of GDC, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, along with the cancellation of E3 2020 (including digital events), and Comiket 98.
We also recently reported on Japanese ratings board CERO suspending operations during the state of emergency in Japan.
The Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering are mapping the virus’ spread [1, 2]. As of this time of writing, there have been over 1.496 million total confirmed cases worldwide, and over 1.069 million active cases. There have been over 89,000 deaths, however over 336,000 people have made a “total recovery.”
