Just like many other companies that are giving away stuff for free, releasing things early and giving heavy discounts during COVID-19 lockdowns, Google is also doing their part. Phil Harrison made a Google blog post today announcing that their video game streaming service Stadia will now have their Pro subscription be free for anyone with a Google account for two months. After that, you will be charged the usual $9.99 per month for the service. Signing up during this time will get you nine games and the ability to stream them through your Chrome browser, select Android phones and TVs with Chromecast Ultra.

In my personal opinion, this is a pretty worthless thing they are giving away for free, and doesn’t excite me in the least. Considering it’s Google we’re talking about, seeing them give you free two months of their crappy service is like a billionaire wanting to stop world hunger with Denny’s coupons.  It’s a measly nine games that you can’t even keep after the subscription is over. If you want to keep the games you stream, you have to pay full price for the games you want in addition to the subscription cost. Sure, there is also a free option, but it’s more limited than the Pro subscription. It’s just an incredibly underwhelming gift, considering that you can pay the exact same price for PlayStation Now, which lets you play over 800 games without having to pay full price for any of them. You can even download 300 of those games to play locally and not struggle with Internet lag.

With that said, I did make a Google Stadia account when I saw this announcement, so I’m willing to give it a shot and see how it’s like to stream these games through Chrome or my Pixel phone.

Source: Google Blog