1753

Demos are mostly gone because Youtubers and Twitch streamers have have filled the space that the demos used to occupy. It’s great for me because Youtube is generally faster and easier at delivering representative samples of games in action. It’s probably great for developers because they don’t have to spend resources on making demos.

Jumping from a Youtube video to a demo seems almost redundant. Jumping to the full game would be better, but to really make that shine Google needs to offer a buffet-style subscription service so people can seamlessly start playing.

1754

If they can get a popular F2P game on the platform in the free tier they’ll be golden. I wonder if some of the back and forth arguments around Epic trying to get out of giving Google Play a cut of Fortnite revenues is tied into Stadia port negotiations.

1755

I’m not really interested due to the pricing scheme. I mean, I’m happy with Steam/GOG pricing. In a year they will start the free tier. We’ll see then.

1756

Stadia has not montly fees
You buy a game and you can play it anywhere with good internet and a chrome browser

1757

Stop lying for Google. There is currently no free tier. It is $10/month.

1758

Technically it exists already, just don’t re-up the subscription you are forced to get in initial bundle and you’ll still have access to Stadia, just not the 4k features.

It’s just that right now there is no way directly buy that without first doing the full bundle then downgrading

1759

Is optional.

When you buy it, you get 3 free months of the montly service but you can cancel it after the 3 month run out. Cancelling it only remove access to the premium quality, that is what delivers 4K. I don’t have a 4K monitor, so I don’t need it.

1760

You still had to buy the $130 bundle to begin with.

1761

I think @Teiman probably rocks a Sony MiniDisc player and has a Nuon at home with Tempest 3K ready to go at a moment’s notice. Betamax movies are in a tub in the basement.

1762

I am atheist.

I have lived all my life this way, believing the opposite of what the 99% of the people believe. So I am accustomed to have my own opinion, even if the 99% of people believe something different.

I just hope god really exist, so we have a ackward meeting and I can tell him that I don’t believe in him.

1763

It’s not optional if you want to play the game you purchased right, today?

1764

No, Teiman’s original statement was correct. If you buy a game today, you won’t need Stadia Pro to play it, now or in the future. And buying games is not tied to having a Pro subscription. It is tied to having a Stadia account, and right now it’s unlikely for anyone to have an account without having also received 3 months of Pro.

The free tier is there, there’s just no open enrollment to it.

I have Stadia Pro for another 2.5 months. I got it for free, and won’t renew the subscription (the Pro continues to make no sense as a product). But I might buy a game or two to play when traveling, since the Base model actually does make sense.

1765

So if someone buys a game, today, and it’s past their three months, they do not have to continue to sub to Pro in order to play that game? They have access to the free version which isn’t… live yet?

1766

Yes. Ex-SWoo also mentioned that this is the case.

1767

So now I’m confused. The free version is available but only to people paying for Pro?

1768

The simple answer is yes.

When these people’s subscription runs out they can choose to not pay for Pro. At that time, they’ll have a Stadia account with the games they purchased that they can still play at 1080p on any device for free.

1769

Okay so while they’re on this Basic model, they can continue to buy games and use it like they never had Pro right? If that’s the case then there are people using the service I would assume most would use. Has anyone shown that yet? I thought all the Media buzz was around the Pro piece.

1770

Right now the only way to get a Stadia account is to buy in - which includes three month of Pro - so there are going to be very few, if any users who are on the Free version. Based on how launch has gone, I expect you will see a lot more Free tier users after their three months of Pro expires though!

1771

Great news! That’s the real experience there. I suspect I will not like use this weirdo platform, but I am certainly curious about what they are doing and how well it works.

1772

Yeah, there’s some weird bundling going on right now which makes an already complex system even more convoluted w/ the various tiers. My guess is that they’ll open up the free tier around E3 w/ some bigger games to do a marketing second push.