Google Stadia’s Bundle Will Launch in November
Update #2 (12:19 PM ET): Google Stadia’s Pro subscription price for the US is $9.99 USD while the limited Founder’s Edition is available for pre-order at $129 USD and comes with three months of the Pro subscription that can be shared with another person. The Founder’s Edition is launching in November 2019 but the paid and free version of Stadia launch next year.
It appears that the La Presse story that leaked was slightly inaccurate about the Stadia’s launch date.
Update (10:58 AM ET): It appears that La Presse’s Google Stadia story has been taken down. The La Presse source link at the bottom of the article has been replaced with a different link.
Original Story:
New Google Stadia details have been leaked by a Canadian news outlet a few hours before the streaming service’s Stadia Connect presentation on Thursday.
La Presse is reporting that Stadia will launch in November with a Stadia Pro monthly subscription that will cost $11.99 CAD and that a free version of Stadia is coming in 2020. There will also be a “Founder’s Edition” that comes with the Stadia controller seen in the image posted above, three months of Stadia Pro, a Chromecast Ultra device, and Destiny 2 all at the price of $169 CAD.
The streaming service will reportedly be available in 14 countries and Canada (along with the US, the UK, and other European countries) has been confirmed to be among them.
The news outlet also reported that Stadia will have 31 games at launch including Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, The Division 2, the reboot Tomb Raider trilogy, and 2016’s DOOM.
With Stadia Pro, subscribers will be able to stream games at 4K/60FPS while the free version of Stadia, Stadia Base, can stream games in HD at 1080p. The paid subscription will include several free games but recently launched titles will have to be bought and the free version won’t let users play Pro’s free games. Additionally, whichever games are bought with a Pro subscription “will remain accessible” after the subscription is cancelled.
“In both [versions], a minimum download capacity of 10 Mbps downstream (download) and 1 Mbps upstream (upload) is required,” La Presse reported. “To enjoy the most complete experience in 4K with 5.1 surround sound, a capacity of 35 Mbps is required.”
Google Stadia will be available on Chromecast, the Chrome browser, and several Google Pixel devices but Google’s vice president of engineering told La Presse that the service is coming to other devices in the future.
“Other devices will be added as time goes on,” Google engineering executive Majd Bakar said. “Our vision in the future is that any screen will be able to broadcast games.”
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