Google's (GOOG -0.69%) (GOOGL -0.68%) Stadia rollout has had its ups and downs. But the tech giant has now announced a big change that should help its cloud gaming partnership: Now, users can access the Stadia platform for free via a free trial subscription of Stadia Pro.
The change is a welcome one for a cloud gaming platform that, not so long ago, was getting some very rough press (including here at the Fool). Without the need to buy hardware and with free games to play via their Stadia Pro free trial, gamers can get the full Stadia experience without spending a dime.
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A launch day's journey into night
Super-fans who purchased Stadia in time for launch day used Google's cloud service with the Stadia Premiere edition: a hardware setup that included a Stadia controller and a Chromecast device with which to sling the video game images up onto a TV. The Premiere Edition also included a Stadia Pro free trial account.
Stadia Pro is Google's Premium subscription service for Stadia gaming. But it was "premium" relative to nothing back when Stadia launched, because the only way to get access to Stadia was to splurge on the bundle that included the premium subscription. The controller, while not technically required on some platforms (players on Android could use Bluetooth controllers, for instance), might as well have been: again, buying the hardware bundle was the only way to get Stadia in the first place. Customers who wanted to play Stadia at launch had to pay for the privilege.
Then there are the games. Though Stadia's games stream from the cloud, this isn't exactly a Netflix (NFLX -0.22%) sort of subscription on-demand model. Games are purchased individually on Stadia's platform (gamers must purchase titles anew even if they already own the game for a different patform). Stadia Pro subscribers can also download games for free (the selection refreshes each month, and subscribers keep the games they already got in past months).
It's a setup with some shortcomings, and a rocky launch day and a rough few months helped highlight some of them. Stadia's support for playing on other pieces of hardware (besides the Stadia controller and Chromecast) was shaky. Stadia's game library was limited, despite Google's rush to add new titles to its lineup ahead of launch day and the company's later decision to release new games to a dissatisfied user base. With Stadia Pro free trial accounts from launch-day subscribers expiring ("free" being somewhat semantic here, sine such customers did pay up-front for the bundle), it was high time for Stadia to launch its truly free version.
Better late than never: here it is.
Free for all
Stadia now offers two crucial features that should significantly widen its potential reach. First, Stadia now offers a free way to get an account. Technically, getting a free account entails signing up for a free trial of the paid version of Stadia (the aforementioned Stadia Pro). But after the free trial, these Pro accounts will revert to regular, unpaid Stadia accounts. And since the only way to get a Stadia account before was to buy hardware, this marks the first time that Stadia can be accessed without spending any cash.
This also means that the change erases the need to have Stadia's controller -- a de facto requirement until the arrival of this free version, since the only way to get Stadia was to invest in the hardware bundle (gamers still need the Stadia controller to use their Stadia games with a Chromecast, but they can use other means to control their games on mobile devices and within the Chrome browser).
The important thing here is that Google is making it awfully easy to try out Stadia without having to invest any money in controllers or premium subscriptions. Users still have to acquire games on the platform, but that's a problem that is easily (and cheaply) solved by via the free trial offer, since free games are available each month to Pro Subscribers -- paying and free-trial'ing alike.
About time
Stadia has not always impressed, but the debut of the service's free version could be a big moment for the future of cloud gaming. And while this may be coming along a little later than fans might have reasonably hoped, it's coming at a relatively good time all the same. Many of the would-be customers that Stadia is targeting are currently socially isolating (something that Google acknowledges in its announcement). And, despite Stadia's missteps, competitors like Nvidia's (NVDA -0.13%) GeForce Now haven't managed to take advantage. Maybe it isn't too late for Stadia to gain the inside track in cloud gaming.
