You’re Wrong About Stadia – Debunking the Biggest Myths

It has been a year since Google Stadia was first released to the public, and during that time the service has proven itself to a lot of people despite a few issues. While cloud streaming still has challenges to overcome, Stadia has a proven track record as something that can change the way people play games for the better. Over the past year, however, many myths and misconceptions about Stadia have spread. Here’s why a lot of what you’ve heard on Stadia is wrong.

Myth: you to have pay monthly to use Stadia

This is by far the biggest myth about Stadia: it’s expensive and you have to pay monthly on top of the cost of the games. Really, nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, here’s how Google Stadia pricing actually works. The platform itself – the apps, streaming technology, etc. – is completely free. Just buy your game and you can use the free console in the cloud with no time limits and no queues. In addition, online multiplayer is not tied to a subscription like it is on other consoles.

Alternatively, there is Stadia Pro. The $ 9.99 monthly subscription unlocks additional features like 4K HDR streams, 5.1 surround sound, and most importantly, a collection of tradable games that you can play at no additional cost as long as your subscription continues. On average, 4-5 games are added to Pro each month and as long as your subscription is active, these games remain in your library. They won’t run and if you exit Pro and then come back, the games are ready where you left off. This membership is by no means required, but it’s easily the best way to experience Stadia.

The true “myth bust” status for this common misconception is that Destiny 2 is now completely free to play on Stadia. No subscription, no game purchase, and no hardware required. Just grab the laptop or smartphone you already own and go. In addition, more free games are coming.

Myth: Stadia is going to be closed

Stadia is a game for the long haul. Could he stop finally? Yeah, absolutely. But every new project or business carries this risk! Should Stadia prove monumental In years without success, Google may have to make a tough call, but if it ever does come to it, the odds are in the gamer’s favor that Google will catch up with refunds or even a replacement.

There are, however, some important things to note. On the one hand, Google is currently offering incentives for developers to offer games on Stadia, and the company is particularly looking for titles to help audiences in 2023 and beyond. While three years isn’t exactly long, it also shows that Google is looking to the future. Also this week, an unfortunate Capcom ransomware leak hit the web, revealing, among other things, that Google had apparently paid. millions dollars to bring Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 8 to Stadia. Although Google is an absolutely massive company with absurd sums of money, it is still a sum of money that should not be laughed at. two games.

Look, I can’t say that Stadia will be around forever and that you can sit back and be confident that the platform will exist for the rest of the time. But what I can say is that in most of the cases, when Google unplugs a product, it’s either because 1) they have something “better” to replace it or 2) they gave it a fair chance and killed it because it failed (Google+ RIP) .

Myth: Stadia has a ‘horrible’ entry delay

Alright, let’s talk about lag. Since Stadia’s announcement, people have been making cracks about latency and lag and how streaming from the cloud will never be as good as a local machine. Yes, there is latency added by streaming, but as the vast majority of people who actually try Stadia with the recommended connection strength will tell you, the latency is basically indistinguishable from a local machine. Input lag isn’t an issue on Stadia – in fact, it’s a bit of a miracle.

While we’re at it, let’s talk about that damn GIF. This clip from Washington post has been hovering on the Internet for a year, “proof” that Stadia has a horrible input delay.

What the GIF doesn’t tell you is that Stadia was played in a head office on a corporate network, something from Google said explicitly Stadia was not suitable at the time because the congested network would add latency to the stream. It’s a horrific example of how Stadia performs, and not at all a picture of what the vast majority of platform customers will experience. You do not believe me? Sign up for the free trial (or “buy” Crayta for zero cost) and try it for yourself! I very much doubt you will see the same results as this horrible example.

Myth: you have to pay full price for every game on Stadia

This is one of the most common misconceptions I’ve seen about Stadia, and also one of the easy to explain. Yes, on Stadia you’ll often pay the full price for a game, but that’s the same price you would pay for the digital version of a game on any other platform. Of course, it can be argued that physical games are often more affordable, but in recent years countless gamers have switched to digital-only games, and console makers are pushing even further with more affordable consoles devoid of players. disk.

But beyond that, some also claim that Stadia doesn’t put games on sale. While we haven’t yet seen a full-scale sale of something like what Steam does occasionally, Stadia does have regular sales. Every week there is a new set of discounts, then random sales on top of that, often matching other platforms. Notably, Borderlands 3 is currently massively reduced to $ 20, a sale no other platform sees. Plus, that $ 20 price tag is lower than anything Steam has ever seen before. Stadia Pro subscribers also get access to larger sales which can sometimes take up to 80% off the price of a game, and you keep those games even if you drop the Pro subscription!

Myth: you don’t own your games on Stadia

By the nature of cloud streaming, people automatically assume that you don’t “own” your games on Stadia. Here’s why.

On Stadia, your purchase of a game is a license to play that game on Stadia. You can think of it like buying a game on Steam or making a digital purchase on PlayStation or Xbox. The only difference is that you are not actively downloading the game using this license. For the average person, there is absolutely no difference in ownership between buying a game on Stadia and Steam, PlayStation, or Xbox, at least when you buy the digital versions. Plus, game stores end up closing. The Wii Store died in 2019, 13 years after the console launched, for example.

In contrast, really, Stadia is the only true cloud gaming platform where you have a sense of ownership over your games. On Xbox Game Pass, a title can leave the subscription service at any time, leaving you without access if you don’t have a console to play it. On Amazon Luna, you also cannot purchase your games. If you stop the subscription, the game is gone.

Myth: Stadia Pro isn’t worth it – there aren’t enough games

When comparing cloud services, Google Stadia might not look so great when you look at the fact that Stadia Pro only offers a few games a month, a far cry from the dozens or hundreds that Luna and Game Pass bring to the table. While the Netflix “all you can eat” model is what a lot of people want, it’s not really far from what you get with Stadia Pro.

As of November 2020, Google is currently offering over 30 free games as part of the Stadia Pro subscription, and all of these titles are added to your library permanently for as long as you remain a subscriber. Some games will join in December and some will leave, but it’s important to talk here about the total number of games that have been offered so far.

If you signed up for Stadia Pro when it launched in November 2019, you’ve been able to trade in over 50 games over the past year, which is almost half of the entire Stadia library. This list includes massive titles like Destiny 2: The Collection, PUBG, SuperHot, Sniper Elite 4 and the Tomb Raider Collection too! It’s a really hard value to pitch if you ask me, especially because these games stay in your library as long as the subscription stays.

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