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Google’s Latest Stadia Policy Won’t Help Platform’s Miserable Launch

Last Updated September 23, 2020 1:17 PM
Thomas Bardwell
Last Updated September 23, 2020 1:17 PM
  • Google Stadia reveals latest policy.
  • Discounted games bought via Stadia Pro won’t be accessible once the subscription expires.
  • Platform’s launch goes from bad to worse.

Update:

Google's Latest Stadia Policy Won't Help Platform's Miserable Launch
Source: Twitter 

Original Story:

Another day, another new chapter in the ongoing Google Stadia dumpster fire. Google has revealed that players who purchase discounted games while subscribed to Stadia Pro will no longer have access to them when the $10 a month subscription expires.

No Access To Discounted Games Once Stadia Pro Expires

Latest Misguided Stadia Policy Doesn't Help Platform's Botched Launch
Source: Twitter 

The news surfaced in a tweet authored in Italian on the official Stadia Twitter handle . In response to a question querying how the subscription works, the translated tweet reads;

Hi! We saw your post and we want to help you! Games obtained free or with discounts thanks to the Stadia Pro subscription will no longer be available once the subscription has expired. You can continue playing with the games you have purchased at full price. A greeting!

A loss of access to free games is understandable as this one of the few positives of subscribing to Stadia Pro. Applying this to the discounted game hasn’t gone down well.

Latest Misguided Stadia Policy Doesn't Help Platform's Botched Launch
Source: Twitter 

For example, through Stadia Pro, a subscriber can pick up Assassin Creed Odyssey for $30 instead of the full list price of $60.

The discount is pretty enticing if we put aside the prohibitive pricing of a one-year-old game. Once that subscription lapses, wave goodbye to island-hopping in the Aegean Sea as a sassy Greek demigod.

PlayStation Gets It Right

To highlight the lunacy of this, PlayStation Plus subscribers benefit from the occasional discount in the PS Store. When the subscription expires, players still have access to the games.

Money’s been spent on ownership of the games regardless of the discount, and PlayStation rightly recognizes this.

Yet Another Blunder

Despite a pretty nifty launch trailer, it’s difficult not to deem Stadia’s launch disastrous. There were warning signs from the announcement that not all Founder’s kits would reach consumers in time for release to the panicked last-minute addition of ten games to the launch lineup .

With Stadia now out in the wild, the Stadia ‘4K/60 fps game play’ tagline turns out to be somewhat of a falsehood and more 1080p up-scaling trickery than anything else .

Google hasn’t done itself any favors with this latest discounted game policy.