Folks have waited a long time for Stadia to deliver the free tier it promised so many moons ago. Yep, right now you need premium for the privilege of using Stadia, but that changes today…sort of.
It’s not the full-time free tier we were expecting, but Phil Harrison, VP and GM of the Stadia project, has confirmed that “anyone who signs up will get two free months of Stadia Pro with instant access to nine games, including GRID, Destiny 2: The Collection, and Thumper.”
As a reminder, Pro is the premium tier that provides Game Pass-esque access to certain games. Existing Pro subscribers “won’t be charged for the next two months.” The offer will be gradually coming to “14 countries…starting today and rolling out over the next 48 hours.” You can find that signup page here when it is available. After that period is over your subscription will revert back to the Stadia Pro option for $10 a month. That wording, mind, implies that the real free Stadia tier is still at least a few months out.
Interestingly, Harrison does acknowledge the current pandemic crisis right now, noting that “keeping social distance is vital,” and issuing the following statement regarding latency: “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.”
Source: Destructoid Google is finally giving Stadia away for free, but there’s a catch