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Google Games

Google Stadia Requires $130 Upfront, $10 Per Month at November Launch (arstechnica.com) 125

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Players will have to pay $129.99 up front and $9.99 a month, on top of individual game purchase costs, when Google's previously announced Stadia game-streaming service launches in November. From a report: A free tier will be available some time in 2020, as will a paid subscription tier that doesn't require the upfront purchase. The Stadia Founder's Edition and its contingent Stadia Pro subscription will be the only way to get access to the Stadia service when it launches, Google announced today. That $129.99 package, available for pre-order on the Google Store right now, will include: A Stadia controller in "limited-edition night blue", a Chromecast Ultra, a three months of Stadia Pro service and a three-month "buddy pass" to give to a friend, and first dibs on claiming a "Stadia Name".

After the first three months, Stadia Pro users will have to pay $9.99 a month to maintain their membership. For that price, they will get access to Google's highest-quality streams, at up to 4K/60fps with high-dynamic range (HDR) and 5.1 surround sound. In 2019, users will not be able to sign up for Stadia Pro without investing in the Founder's Edition hardware package, and Founder's Edition packages will only be available "in limited quantities and for a limited time."
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Google Stadia Requires $130 Upfront, $10 Per Month at November Launch More

Google Stadia Requires $130 Upfront, $10 Per Month at November Launch

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  • I don't think so (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Get hooked on games/stuck with my characters getting deleted if I don't then pay a fee? No thanks. It seems like Google thinks players are really smart and want great complex features and yet are really stupid at the same time.

    • Get hooked on games/stuck with my characters getting deleted if I don't then pay a fee? No thanks. It seems like Google thinks players are really smart and want great complex features and yet are really stupid at the same time.

      What I would be worried about is Google all of a sudden pulling the plug on the system if they happen to get bored or don't make enough money to suit them to keep the service alive.

      Spend all that money up front and then the equipment becomes a paperweight because you can't use it anywhere else.

      • that is why is better to have as just an VM with your steam accounts, you gog account, you games, etc!

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by jwhyche ( 6192 )

        What I would be worried about is Google all of a sudden pulling the plug on the system if they happen to get bored

        I have a policy of using google services if I need too but not relying on them for future plans. The country side is littered with corpses of google projects that they have taken out into the field and shot. If I can't count on a service being around when I need it, better not depend on that service at all.

        • If I can't count on a service being around when I need it, better not depend on that service at all.

          Also, if you "depend" on access to games, re-evaluate your life.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by jwhyche ( 6192 )

            That would also "depend." If I'm selling, writing, or maintaining games, I would think my life would be just fine with access to games.

      • The "equipment" is a 65$ controller. (rest of the starter package is a chromecast HD that will not be needed if you play on PC/mobile and 2 x 3 months subscription)

        Now compare this to the equipment cost of a regular console that become paperweights if Sony decided to pull the plug from PSN. The game discs are little more than dongles and download tokens.

    • and yet are really stupid at the same time.

      That will be decided by the numbers.

      But with Google's record, the real question is, How long before they kill it?

    • Get hooked on games/stuck with my characters getting deleted if I don't then pay a fee? No thanks.

      FUD. Any evidence that's going to happen?

  • Hahahaha what a joke (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    $130 for a box, $10 a month, but only if you BUY NOW!

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

      If you don't already have a Chromecast Ultra, and you want one, then it's a reasonable price given what controllers cost, and that there's three months of service free. If not, you'd have to be a compleat fool to buy in, because Google will almost certainly cancel this service within a year or two. If you have the money to throw away on something like that, then you can afford to play games locally.

      • because Google will almost certainly cancel this service within a year or two

        Go ahead and link some examples where Google has done this. Specifically, offered a paid-for, physical product up front then abandoned all support for it.

        • because Google will almost certainly cancel this service within a year or two

          Go ahead and link some examples where Google has done this. Specifically, offered a paid-for, physical product up front then abandoned all support for it.

          Nice try, but that's not what we would be talking about here, because you'd still have a Chromecast and a controller, and they would work fine. It's not like you'd have bought nothing, you'd have something for your money. I guarantee that Google's ToS aren't going to bind them to continuing to provide the service beyond their interest. They'll keep it going a bare minimum of one year, though I predict it will be more like two to three.

          The smart thing to do is to wait until they open the service to other dev

          • Nice try, but that's not what we would be talking about here, because you'd still have a Chromecast and a controller, and they would work fine.

            If you think Chromecast is a standalone device that doesn't depend on services from Google, I have a bridge to sell you.

            Right now, [every, single company] is just trying to build a user base of people a) willing to give them money

            Fixed.

            • If you think Chromecast is a standalone device that doesn't depend on services from Google, I have a bridge to sell you.

              If you think that's what I said, I've got one for you. It doesn't depend on this service to be useful.

              Anyone who expects Google to keep a service running is delusional. Even gmail might become boring to them one day, though the opportunity to process that spam corpus is worth quite a bit. Not for the spam-blocking ability, although that's useful, but for the advertising intelligence. It tells them in detail what's being spammed, and to some degree, who's doing it. But clearly they weren't deriving any real

              • If you think that's what I said, I've got one for you. It doesn't depend on this service to be useful.

                I only know what you wrote. You said:

                If not, you'd have to be a compleat fool to buy in, because Google will almost certainly cancel this service within a year or two

                If you aren't implying that it's dump to buy the hardware because it'll be useless when the service is canceled, WTF are you saying? Who knows. Enjoy your ramblings I'm out.

                • The whole point was, if you don't want the Chromecast Ultra for other purposes, you shouldn't buy in until they open up to other devices. I may have overcomplicated things slightly, but nothing like you have managed.

                  • Dude. My god. You said this:

                    because Google will almost certainly cancel this service within a year or two

                    All I said was "provide some examples where they did that".

                    Go ahead and link some examples where Google has done this. Specifically, offered a paid-for, physical product up front then abandoned all support for it.

                    You have not. That has NOTHING to do with whether you get a Chromecast out of the deal I never said anything about that. Christ if you're going to have a conversation about something, you have to base it on what the person actually said not some internal monologue you're having with yourself.

            • Then show me the deed to that bridge, please.

              Chromecast have a local REST API that allows you to control them through local wifi. Not much more you can do besides telling it to play a stream or set the volume, but that's almost all it CAN do anyway. It's not used much as the actual fun is the integration into the apps on your phone that usually control the chromecast, but it works. (I use it through my FHEM home automation to play web radio station without using the TuneIn app)

        • Google Glass?
          The Nexus line of unadulterated, affordable, powerful, dev-focused phones?
          Fiber internet?
          Their shitty fucking router thing?
          The early doorbells, thermostats, or whatever the fuck else?

          • Wow, searching the internet is hard. No fear, I've done it for you.

            Google Glass?

            The Google glass that were sold never stopped working.

            The Nexus line of unadulterated, affordable, powerful, dev-focused phones?

            Those devices received the same support lifecycle as any other smartphone.

            Fiber internet?

            This is a service. It is not hardware. Like I said "Specifically, offered a paid-for, physical product up front then abandoned all support for it."

            The early doorbells, thermostats, or whatever the fuck else?

            Go ahead, link them.

            Their shitty fucking router thing?

            This one?
            https://store.google.com/us/pr... [google.com]

            Yep, looks unsupported.

    • The best part is that it's a Google offering.

      You've got to be clueless or a total fucking tool to buy into a Google beta.

  • Suckers, line up! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    There are plenty of you.

  • Stadia game-streaming service (Score:5, Funny)

    by grep -v '.*' * ( 780312 ) on Thursday June 06, 2019 @01:01PM (#58719972)
    Outsourcing game hardware? And then playing a game? But some are boring, some are very hard, and some take hundreds of hours? Who has time for all that?

    If only there were some way to also outsource actually playing the game. That'd be great! I could pay for both the external hardware and for the external usage -- that way I could spend my time doing more pleasurable things.

    Why, I could even pay more for a more efficient (faster time) result! It's a win (Google) win (player) win (me)!!

    • Search "games that play themselves", such as https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com]

    • What games interest you? I am willing to play the game for you in exchange for a fee, but the price will be dependent on how much fun it is!

    • If only there were some way to also outsource actually playing the game. That'd be great! I could pay for both the external hardware and for the external usage -- that way I could spend my time doing more pleasurable things.

      You should get Pokemon Go, and then this: https://support.pokemon.com/hc... [pokemon.com] You were just joking but this literally plays the fucking game for you so you don't even need to get your phone out of your pocket.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by chrish ( 4714 )

      What do you think gold farming in MMOs is, other than paying someone else to play for you?

      Or, if you like single-player games, you can usually just watch all the cutscenes on YouTube or something. Or watch someone else play it on Twitch.

  • and you have to rebuy games? Why not just rent an VM like Shadow?
    and that is any game with any mod that you want.

  • Not a terrible deal (Score:3)

    by AvitarX ( 172628 ) <me@brandywinehund r e d .org> on Thursday June 06, 2019 @01:12PM (#58720042) Journal

    But I'm wary to pay anything up front for a service I feel likely to flop and be cancelled.

    Chromecast Ultra $60 (though my TV does this)
    3 months $30
    controller $40

    Also, monthly sub + buying games seems like a bad deal.

    • You get the subscription for a package of (free) games and/or can buy additional games with or without subscription. They are only starting with the subscription-only tier. And the games you bought in addition to your subscription will work without subscription running.

  • From the previous article:

    Stadia is not a dedicated console or set-top box. The platform will be accessible over the internet on a variety of platforms: browsers, computers, TVs, and mobile devices. In an onstage demonstration of Stadia, Google showed someone playing a game on a Chromebook, then playing it on a phone, then immediately playing it on PC, picking up where the game left off in real time.

    Stadia can stream games in 60 fps, with HDR and 4K resolution, said Google's Majd Bakar. In the future, Bakar

  • Can you even imagine if everyone starts gaming this way? If you thought Internet was at maximum capacity before that...

    Me, I'll wait for the Intellivision Amico.

  • and how will Cancon rules work with stuff like this?

  • .... to drop prices ending in 99c.

  • Either you charge a subscription, or I buy games. You can't have both, _and_ also charge the three digit up-front fee. Epic fail. Better luck next time.

  • Anybody know how to get an invite or whatever?

  • $0 per month. Since you'll be buying $80 in games every time there is a sale.

    • They already announced their $0 tier already, even though the subscriptions get a head start. I'm sure sales will be coming up, too. We'll see if they can turn it into steam like collectors fest where even downloaded games are kept in mint condition without even touching the shrinkwrap around the downloaded file...

  • This is a terrible way to play games. Don't do it.

  • $130 up front + $10 / month + cost of actual content + massive waste of bandwidth only for it to be rendered 100% useless the second Google gets bored and decides to shut it down. What are the chances of Stadia making it past 2021?

    How can there not be so many people signing up that Google's servers are crashing under the load?

    • The money I do not have to spend for the Baldurs gate 3 Content and the 400$ Console will get me through 3 years of $10/month and still having money left for a starbucks coffee.

  • Yeah.
    Fuck that noise.

  • Instead of giving Google another penny or any more of my data, how about I use that money for competing services from companies that aren't as heavily engaged in social engineering or censorship for authoritarian governments. [wikipedia.org]

  • The summary says people have to pay $129 up front but that's not what I understand. As I read the news that $129 is only for a founder's sort of package with the Stadia controller. If you don't care about the special package just pay the $10/month fee or wait till next year to use the service for free (but having to purchase the games.)

  • There are games in that list that I'd like to play, some of which I'll look to buy anyway.

    I wont sign up for the service anyway. Streaming games services just can't provide the experience I get from running the games locally. The latency impacts are just too high.

    Turn based games (e.g. Football Manager) will be fine, but shit, I can buy FM on Steam for a lot less than $10/month. Anything that requires interactive control will just not work with the UK internet.

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