Google is finally giving Stadia away for free, but there’s a catch

You get Pro for two months

Folks have waited a long time for Stadia to deliver the free tier it promised so many moons ago. Yep, right now you need premium for the privilege of using Stadia, but that changes today…sort of.

Phil Harrison, VP and GM of the Stadia project, has confirmed that “anyone who signs up will get two free months of Stadia Pro with instant access to nine games, including GRID, Destiny 2: The Collection, and Thumper.” As a reminder, Pro is the premium tier that provides Game Pass-esque access to certain games. Existing Pro subscribers “won’t be charged for the next two months,” and the offer will be gradually coming to “14 countries…starting today and rolling out over the next 48 hours.” You can find that signup page here when it is available. After that period is over your subscription will revert back to the Stadia Pro option for $10 a month unless you cancel.

Interestingly, Harrison does acknowledge the current pandemic crisis right now, noting that “keeping social distance is vital,” and issuing the following statement regarding latency: “With increased demand due to more people at home during this time, we’re taking a responsible approach to internet traffic. For Stadia, we’ve always adjusted bandwidth use based on a variety of in-home and local internet factors. To reduce load on the internet further, we’re working toward a temporary feature that changes the default screen resolution from 4k to 1080p. The vast majority of people on a desktop or laptop won’t notice a significant drop in gameplay quality, but you can choose your ​data usage options ​in the Stadia app.”

Google also reminded us of all of the ways you can play Stadia:

• Play on your laptop, desktop or Chrome OS tablet with your favorite (HID compliant) USB supported controller or mouse and keyboard
• Play over Wi-Fi on Pixel or many supported Android phones 

Here is the full list of nine Pro premium games:

• Stacks on Stacks
• Gylt
• SteamWorld Dig 2
• SteamWorld Quest
• Serious Sam Collection
• Spitlings
• Destiny 2
• Thumper
• Grid

Interested in whether or not Stadia is worth your time? You can read all about it here. But for two free months, I highly recommend at least giving Thumper a try if you haven’t already.

Play Stadia Pro for free, starting today [Google]