Google Stadia: Price, Games and All

Google finally dished the pricing, availability and launch partnership details about Stadia, the cloud-gaming platform it formally announced in March, at an event the Thursday before E3. The platform combines a game vault subscription service combined with game hosting to let you play games on any device; it's been compared to Netflix, in that there's a pool of content you pay a monthly fee for that can be viewed on mobile or fixed devices.

The lowdown on the announcements:

•     There's a Stadia Base tier that's free for any game you purchase via Stadia at up to 1080/60p in stereo (at 10Mb/s). Individual game prices still TBD.

•     There's a $9.99 monthly Stadia Pro tier, which delivers 4K/60p HDR quality (at 35Mb/sec) with 5.1 surround sound, free games added to your library and discounts.

•     There's a Stadia Founder's Edition limited preorder offer for $129.99, which includes a first access to the service, limited-edition controller, a Chromecast Ultra streaming devices, three months of Stadia Pro, Bungie's full Destiny 2 experience, first dibs on a username and a buddy pass that gives a friend 3 months to try Stadia Pro.

•     Coming to 14 countries first, including the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and some other places.

•     At launch, it will work on laptops, desktops and Chromecast Ultra TV streaming sticks, tablets, plus Google Pixel 3 phones. More phones, including the iPhone, and tablets are slated for later.

•     The Stadia controller, an optional $70 USD / £60 accessory that will connect wirelessly to the internet in order to play games, will come in three colours: black, clearly white, and wasabi (green). 

Launch games include:

•     Baldur's Gate

•     Ghost Recon: Breakpoint

•     Gylt

•     Get Packed (in 2020)

•     Tom Clancy's The Division 2

•     Doom Eternal

•     Wolfenstein: Youngblood

•     Borderlands 3

•     Mortal Kombat 11

•     Assassin's Creed Odyssey

•     Just Dance 

Game publisher partners include:

•     Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption western maker Take 2 Interactive

•     Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider adventure game maker Square Enix

•     Fallout post-apocalyptic game maker Bethesda

•     Electronic Arts, which makes popular sports games like FIFA, Madden NFL and NHL Hockey

Upcoming E3 press conferences

Saturday, June 8

•     Electronic Arts -- 9 a.m. PT (noon ET)

Sunday, June 9

•     Microsoft/Xbox -- 1 p.m. PT (4 p.m. ET)

•     Bethesda -- 5:30 p.m. PT (8:30 p.m. ET)

Monday, June 10

•     PC Gaming Show -- 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET)

•     Ubisoft -- 1 p.m. PT (4 p.m. ET)

•     Square Enix -- 6 p.m. PT (9 p.m. ET)

Tuesday, June 11

•     Nintendo (Livestream only) -- 9 a.m. PT (noon ET)

Source : CNET