Here’s your daily tech digest, by way of the DGiT Daily newsletter, for Friday, June 7, 2019!
1. Google Stadia: What we now know
Google’s Stadia Connect event revealed some of the core details we’ve been wanting to know since the first unveiling of the streaming gaming platform back in mid-March.
What we now know: pricing, availability, and games.
Before those details, the big takeaways:
- We now know for sure this isn’t quite “Netflix for games” but more of a PlayStation Now / Xbox Game Pass deal. Pay to play, with some games included, but not all.
- The included or bundled games will be some older PC and console games, but any new AAA title that is available on Stadia will still need to be purchased before you can play it.
- Once you own it, it’s available everywhere, and starts within seconds, without any waiting for downloads, patches, updates, and so on.
- And Destiny 2 is included in a special once-off deal – more on that below.
Now let’s take a look at the new details.
Pricing:
- Google announced Stadia Pro as its main pricing model.
- Stadia Pro which costs $9.99 a month in the U.S. and 9.99 EUR. It does offer access to a bundle of older PC and console games all at once in a Netflix-style business model. It will support up to 4K resolution and 60fps for games.
- There is another option before launch, a limited “Founder’s Edition” version of Stadia.
- This limited-time offer includes three months of Stadia Pro service, a Chromecast Ultra, and a limited edition Night Blue Google Stadia game controller, plus full access to Bungie’s first-person shooter sequel, Destiny 2, via Stadia. There’s also a buddy pass code for three months of Stadia Pro to give to a friend.
- This launch pack costs $129 in the U.S. and $169 in Canada, and 129 EUR elsewhere.
- Pre-order it here.
- There is a free version too called Stadia Base – coming in 2020. Buy any game with Stadia, play for free, limited to 1080p quality, and stereo sound rather than 5.1 surround sound. Which is a good deal, even with the limitations, if and when it happens.
Availability:
- Coming in November, Stadia is available in 14 countries at first, just in Europe and North America.
- The U.S. and Canada, UK, then European countries including Germany (yay), Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden:
- Which excludes a huge amount of people, including the usual launch countries like Australia, Japan, India, Singapore, Taiwan, and even Mexico.
- We don’t know why that is, but it’s probably a combination of Google data center locations and average broadband speeds.
Games:
- We know there’ll be at least 31 games available, including Doom Eternal, Doom (2016), Rage 2, The Elder Scrolls Online, Farming Simulator 19, Baldur’s Gate III, Tomb Raider trilogy, NBA 2K, Borderlands 3, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, and Destiny 2 of course, plus new games Gylt and Get Packed, and more.
- Some titles will get a discount if you purchase via a Stadia Pro subscription, too.
- At this stage, I’m unsure if the biggest detail or the smallest detail is the number and titles of the games available.
- With a November release, and with E3 next week, it’s likely there are more games coming out or announced with compatibility – including first-party games from Google’s own game studio Stadia Games and Entertainment.
I paid up, which is weird for me:
- I traditionally like to wait and see with new products, but I bought the Founder’s Edition on day one.
- Why?
- My Android Authority colleague Joe Hindy irresistibly pushed me over the edge with these points:
- “If there is anything on this planet I’m a sucker for, it’s limited edition game controllers! Plus, a Chromecast Ultra is like $70, and you get the three months of $9.99 Stadia Pro content.
- So it actually ends up being cheaper than just the regular controllers. $29 for a limited edition controller. Sold.”
- Now, Joe’s right. But there’s a counter to this – you don’t actually need the Stadia controller to play – you can game via Google Chrome on your laptop with mouse and keyboard, for example, or use a DualShock 4 or Xbox One controller that you already own if you own a Chromecast, or with your phone (only Google Pixel 3 and 3a devices are compatible at launch, so far).
- Oh, and importantly, I won’t have an issue with download speeds with a decent connection in Berlin, so that cleared me to buy up even more.
- Test out your own speeds before you buy via Stadia’s special speed test.
- More – Google Stadia takes on the gaming industry: Everything you need to know (AA), and everything announced in a three-minute wrap (Twitter).
2. Huawei’s own OS might come as soon as August/September, according to Chinese state media (AA).
3. HTC still makes smartphones, launching a new one next week (AA).
4. Nokia 2.2 announced: Who wants an Android One phone for 99 euros? (AA).
5. Google confirms that an advanced backdoor came preinstalled on Android devices, put in before devices were built (Ars Technica).
6. The clever cryptography behind Apple’s “Find My” feature (Ars Technica).
7. Google Search won’t show more than two top results from the same site (Engadget).
8. There’s a Breaking Bad mobile game, now available on the Play Store (AA).
9. Blizzard cancels StarCraft first-person shooter to focus on “Diablo 4” and “Overwatch 2” (Kotaku).
10. “Uber Copter” to offer flights from lower Manhattan to J.F.K. (NY Times).
11. Watching a Boston Dynamics robot malfunction is pretty scary (Vice).
Most clicked link this week:
12. The 80-mile wide, 80-mile wide ladybug swarm that showed up on weather radars (NPR).
DGiT Daily: Your Tech Resource
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from Android Authority http://bit.ly/2Wnr7WO
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