After a more tech-focused reveal at GDC 2019, Google finally revealed everything about its upcoming streaming service Stadia in the first ever Stadia Connect presentation.
Stadia’s pricing is a concern for many, and Google shed some light on how you’ll be able to pay for games on the service during the presentation. Stadia Base is the free version of Stadia. It’s slated for launch in 2020 and will support streaming at up to 1080p at 60fps with stereo sound. You’ll have to purchase games like any other platform, presumably at a full $60. Stadia Pro, on the other hand, is the more premium option, and it’ll be available this November for $10/month. The Pro subscription raises the stream quality to 4K at 60 fps with HDR and 5.1 surround sound support. On top of that, Stadia Pro members will receive free games on a regular basis, the first of which being Destiny 2: The Collection, which includes every piece of Destiny 2 content, even the upcoming Shadowkeep expansion and the accompanying annual pass. Stadia Pro also gives members access to exclusive discounts on select game purchases, but not much is known about this at the moment.
If you want to go all in on Stadia, you can get the Google Stadia Founder’s Edition. Priced at $129, the Founder’s Edition comes with an exclusive Night Blue Stadia Controller variant (Stadia controllers are $70 on their own), a Chromecast Ultra for 4K streaming on a TV, three months of Stadia Pro, and a buddy pass that will provide a friend with three months of Stadia Pro. You’ll also get a Founder’s badge to show that you were there from the beginning, as well as first dibs on the Stadia username of your choosing. According to the fine print on the Stadia store page, Founder’s Edition purchasers will be able to choose a name “with no numerical identifier auto-appended,” implying that Stadia will allow for duplicate names with a number following the name, similar to Discord or Battle.net.
At launch, Stadia will be playable on Google hardware like the Chromecast Ultra and Pixel 3, as well as any device with a Google Chrome browser. There are plans to expand to more devices, including other smartphones, but those are the only supported devices at launch. As far as Internet speeds go, a 10Mbps connection is the minimum required for Stadia, and it’ll let you stream 720p video at 60fps. 35Mbps, however, is the recommended speed, and a speed like that lets you stream with all the bells and whistles like 4K resolution and HDR. There’s a connection test available on the store page to see if your Internet speed is up to snuff.
Of course, games are the lifeblood of a service like this, and while Google didn’t necessarily show any killer apps or must-have exclusives, we still saw a solid handful of titles. The first game revealed was Baldur’s Gate 3, developed by Larian Studios, the team behind the excellent Divinity: Original Sin games. We then saw a bunch of third-party titles ranging from Ghost Recon Breakpoint to Mortal Kombat 11 to Destiny 2. Other games that weren’t shown in the presentation but are confirmed to be on Stadia include Borderlands 3 and Darksiders Genesis. There were only two titles revealed to be exclusive to the service: Gylt, an incredibly atmospheric adventure from Tequila Works, and Get Packed, a wacky multiplayer game reminiscent of Overcooked and Gang Beasts from indie-developers Moonshine Studios. Get Packed is slated for 2020, but no specific dates have been announced as of yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk3Qp_npjxE
Here’s a list of all the confirmed games so far:
- Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – Ubisoft
- Baldur’s Gate 3 – Larian Studios
- Borderlands 3 – 2K
- The Crew 2 – Ubisoft
- Darksiders Genesis – THQ Nordic
- Destiny 2 – Bungie
- Doom – Bethesda Softworks
- Doom Eternal – Bethesda Softworks
- Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 – Bandai Namco
- The Elder Scrolls Online – Bethesda Softworks
- Farming Simulator 19 – Giants Software
- Final Fantasy 15 – Square Enix
- Football Manager – Sega
- Get Packed – Coatsink
- GRID – Codemasters
- Gylt – Tequila Works
- Just Dance – Ubisoft
- Metro Exodus – Deep Silver
- Mortal Kombat 11 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
- NBA 2K – 2K
- Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid – nWay Games
- Rage 2 – Bethesda Softworks
- Rise of the Tomb Raider – Square Enix
- Samurai Shodown – SNK
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Square Enix
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint – Ubisoft
- Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 – Ubisoft
- Tomb Raider Definitive Edition – Square Enix
- Thumper – Drool
- Trials Rising – Ubisoft
- Wolfenstein: Youngblood – Bethesda Softworks
Interestingly enough, there are a few developers listed that haven’t announced any titles for Stadia yet. Rockstar, EA, and Capcom have all signed on to bring games to the service, but they did not specify which of their titles are Stadia-bound. On the list of developers, they each have asterisks by their names, and the corresponding footnote reads “publisher to announce content at their discretion.” Perhaps more Stadia announcements will happen over the next week at E3, or maybe they’re saving reveals for a future Stadia Connect. Regardless, it’s unlikely that this is the last time we’ll hear from Google prior to the launch of Stadia.
You can pre-order the Founder’s Edition and check out the full list of launch titles here.
