May the 4th be with you, if you're a Stadia Pro subscriber as you can now claim Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order free. Yes, that's right. The Stadia team haven't even announced it, it's just there on the Stadia store ready to claim!
A pretty massive game to be giving away, although it wouldn't be the first since over time Stadia has given away a number of big titles with Stadia Pro.
Direct Link
That means if you have Stadia Pro you can now claim and play all of these, as long as your subscription is active:
Ary and the Secret of Seasons |
AVICII Invector |
Crayta: Premium Edition |
Cthulhu Saves Christmas |
Everspace |
Figment |
Floor Kids |
Gunsport |
Hitman - Complete First Season |
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number |
Human: Fall Flat Stadia Edition |
Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition |
Little Nightmares II |
Orcs Must Die! 3 |
Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle |
Pikuniku |
PixelJunk Raiders |
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) |
Reigns |
Republique |
Resident Evil 7 Biohazard Gold Edition |
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated |
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order |
SteamWorld Dig |
Submerged: Hidden Depths |
Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince |
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana |
In other news, Stadia recently finally got a search bar and more UI changes planned.
Play Stadia on Linux on Stadia.com with a Chromium browser.
While this is going to probably win over a number of people, Stadia has also lost another high-profile staffer. John Justice, previously the Vice President and Head of Product at Stadia has left Google as confirmed to 9to5Google. Seems like Google has done some restructuring in other places too.
To be fair, they announced a while ago that they aren't developing any more products. So like, what do they need a head of product for?
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 4 May 2021 at 7:06 pm UTC
One may dream...
Last edited by Mohandevir on 4 May 2021 at 10:57 pm UTC
Nobody is willing to pay for a service where you need to buy your games anyway (without even possessing a copy of them).
The Stadia pro offert is not as appealing as the Game pass from Microsoft.
Last edited by Spyker on 5 May 2021 at 7:44 am UTC
Quoting: SpykerThe real problem of Stadia is the business model.But those aren't really comparable, because Stadia doesn't require a subscription, whereas Xbox Game Pass does. With Xbox Game Pass, you can't use it at all without paying a subscription, and you lose access to everything the moment you cancel your subscription. And, the price is the same whether you play one game on the service or 100. With Stadia, you can sign up for free, pay for just the games you want individually, and keep them indefinitely (or unless and until Stadia goes offline, which I think is the real danger of these game streaming services).
Nobody is willing to pay for a service where you need to buy your games anyway (without even possessing a copy of them).
The Stadia pro offert is not as appealing as the Game pass from Microsoft.
I personally find individual purchases a lot more appealing, just because when I've had subscriptions to other entertainment services in the past (like Netflix), I find myself constantly asking "am I using this enough? Should I spent more of my limited free time using this to justify the subscription price?" I find I have an easier time judging whether I want to make a one-time purchase on a game. So for me, Xbox Cloud gaming's "you must subscribe to enter" requirement makes it look less appealing than other ways to game.
That doesn't mean I'm really excited to spend a lot of money on Stadia games, though. Copying a post I made on another website:
I think the most concerning thing about Stadia is that the world's largest ad company has a marketing problem, in which an awful lot of people think Stadia's business model is a lot worse than it actually is.
Some people prefer buying games individually. Some people prefer subscription-entertainment, where they pay one subscription price with a bunch of stuff included. Stadia recognizes that and gives potential customers a choice: you can either pay a subscription and get some games included (but you lose them if you cancel your subscription), Or you can buy games individually and keep them as long as Stadia exists. Yet somehow, a myth has cropped up that Stadia requires customers to both subscribe and pay for games individually: a substantially worse proposition than what Stadia actually offers. It's completely bogus, yet somehow a lot of people believe Stadia's pricing model is a lot worse than it actually is.
Which means Stadia has an advertising problem. If only there was a multi-trillion dollar ad company that could help them! Oh, wait, there is. Google is the one company that ought to be able to turn around any advertising failure. The fact that Stadia has an advertising problem, IMO, means the higher-ups at Google aren't taking it seriously. And that means I'm hesitant to spend much on games on Stadia, because I am concerned it won't stick around long-term.
Last edited by RandomizedKirbyTree47 on 5 May 2021 at 10:20 am UTC
But same was true with Steam in the beginning. It felt so weird not having a physical copy anymore at hand, and only being able to download it from the Internet. Now we don't want to have it otherwise.
Internet connections are getting better and better, I remember starting with an 33.6k modem, improving to 56k, ISDN, DSL-light (384kbit/s), 6mbit DSL to 100 mbit cable and now 300 mbit fibre. And with fibre I didn't have any problems so far. Sure, there are enough people having issues.
Yeah, it's not for everybody, but for a lot of people of the modern world. And I like it. Stadia has worked well for me, except that one issue, where I wasn't able to get 1080p, which is fixed again. And I know I'm supporting Linux game development at least indirectly with it. Hopefully this will benefit Desktop Linux gaming eventually.
So yeah, it's just a matter of getting used to it. All we want, is to play games, right? We don't own games really anymore for already a long time. Exception are games on GoG and itch maybe, but you still have to download them and their stores don't have an as high user count as e.g. Steam.
I hope that Stadia will be a success in the long run, though I also like GeForce Now, where I can play the games I bought on other stores already (even though not all of them by far). But mostly the ones my friends are playing and are "protected" by EAC. So, I'm using the best of all worlds and what's working on Linux ;)
Like it was said in another post, for me too, the real issue with Stadia is if it goes offline... The subscription model is nothing that's not been done elsewhere and successfully (same as PS+).
Last edited by Mohandevir on 5 May 2021 at 12:27 pm UTC
Last edited by Nanobang on 5 May 2021 at 12:38 pm UTC
Quoting: NanobangWill Google leave the Stadia spigot on just enough for game owners to access their games? Will game owners be able to download their games just before Google pulls the Stadia plug? Or will Stadia just not be there one day, a sign on the Stadia door that says "GoneFishing."?
Lol! Your guess is as good as mine.
I'm just wondering what could be done with a Stadia build, whitout the api and some way to run it?
Last edited by Mohandevir on 5 May 2021 at 12:43 pm UTC
Quoting: RandomizedKirbyTree47Which means Stadia has an advertising problem. If only there was a multi-trillion dollar ad company that could help them! Oh, wait, there is. Google is the one company that ought to be able to turn around any advertising failure. The fact that Stadia has an advertising problem, IMO, means the higher-ups at Google aren't taking it seriously.
To be fair, google has an advertising problem for all its products (so I don't think it means a lack of seriousness). Yes, it's an advertising company, but that means they have the infrastructure to get other companies' ads to people. It doesn't mean they know how to make ads themselves.
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