Stadia, Google’s gaming streaming service, is set to launch in select countries in North America and Europe later this year. While the offer sounds fair, it’s not convincing enough for those who don’t have access to good internet service, especially those with data caps. Now, there’s another point of contention- the pricing on games.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Stadia boss Phil Harrison has this to say about game prices on Stadia: “I don’t know why it would be cheaper.”
Harrison offers a justification for the price being similar to console and PC games, despite users only can stream them. “The value you get from the game on Stadia means you can play it on any screen in your life – TV, PC, laptop, tablet, phone,” he said. “I think that is going to be valuable to players.”
Stadia’s biggest selling point is that you don’t need to buy a console. No need to download updates and install patches and manage drive spaces, all is settled in the cloud. And you can play with any device that can run Chrome. The downside is, you need to have a good enough connection, and hopefully a non-capped internet subscription.
Stadia is not a subscription service either, as you need to buy games just like on PC and consoles. This is not a rival to Xbox Game Pass or PS Now. There is however an equivalent to a PS Plus and Xbox Live Gold subscription called Stadia Pro, where you get new games added in your account so long as you are an active subscriber.
Since the game is totally digital, and it’s not even the game files you’re downloading, one would hope the game prices would be cheaper. Unfortunately, it’s not.
Individual game prices are yet to be revealed. Harrison points that it’s up to publishers and developers to set the game prices.
This is nothing to worry about for now, since Stadia won’t be coming to Southeast Asia anytime soon.
Source: Eurogamer