Google Director: Many people do not realize that the Stadia online multiplayer mode is free



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One of the misconceptions about Stadia is that you have to pay to play online multiplayer games.

According to John Justice, Google vice president and product manager at Stadia, Stadia said in a video interview with StadiaCast that many consumers believe that Stadia's multiplayer mode is stuck behind a paywall similar to PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold. .

Justice said that to access Stadia this year, consumers must purchase the $ 129 / £ 119 Founder's edition, which includes a Chromecast Ultra, a limited edition controller and a three-month Stadia Pro subscription.

Pro subscribers will enjoy 4K / HDR streaming with 5.1 surround sound and will receive about a free game per month, Google announced. The free version of the service, Stadia Base, will offer streaming up to 1080p with stereo when it launches in 2020. Neither of them will charge multiplayer online play.

"Normally, I have to buy a high-end console or gaming PC. If I play multiple screens, I buy more than one," Justice said. "And all that layer, all the stuff out there – and for us it's better material than what you can buy in a console today, a lot – we give it all for free. And so it's a pretty cool and disruptive thing.

"And for the Pro subscription, consider it more like an option that adds extra features, just like PS Plus or Live Gold," he continued. "In both cases, they add games, they add additional features. We do something different here too. Not only do we provide you with the hardware layer and we do not charge you for it, but we do not block the multiplayer mode, so we allow you to do it in multiplayer as well.

"I think a lot of people have not figured it out yet, probably because we're just doing the founder thing and [with] Founder, you have to somehow have everything at once. I have a lot of questions about it. "

Elsewhere in the interview, the Justice Department said that letting the general public try the cloud gambling service was a "high priority" and Google is therefore considering offering free trials of the Stadia platform "a few months After the launch.

Google Stadia will be launched in November 2019 with over 30 games available for purchase from the first day.

In a VGC interview with VGC on Tuesday, Gearbox creative director Paul Sage called Stadia "probably the most surprising thing" he has seen in the video game industry for a decade.