Google Stadia's free tier is now available, comes with two-month Pro subscription

The free tier of Google Stadia has been part of the company's plan since it launched the game streaming service. Now, it's available to all countries that have the service, including Canada, with two months of free Stadia Pro subscription. If you have a Google account, then you can sign up for free over at stadia.google.com. 

You will still need to buy games a la carte from the digital Stadia Store, but now you no longer have to spend $169 for the Premiere Edition. That tier comes with a Stadia controller, 4K-capable Chromecast Ultra, and three months of Stadia Pro. Plus, you needed to pay $11.99 a month to continue to use the service, but this gives you access to 4K streaming and free games. With this new tier, though, Pro subscribers won't be charged for two months.

Google is rolling out the feature over the next few days, so be patient if it hasn't made its way to you yet. You won't be able to keep the games you received for free once your Stadio Pro subscription lapses, but you can access the games you've bought (even those purchased with Stadia Pro-exclusive discounts). You also won't get access to 4K streaming after the subscription expires.

And for the time being, Google is making a bandwidth adjustment that defaults Stadia streaming to 1080p for all users. You can change the resolution within the Stadia app. The move is presumably to help reduce network strain caused by the large number of people staying at home due to COVID-19.

You can stream Stadia games over Wi-Fi on Pixel phones or select Android phones, on your TV using a Chromecast Ultra, or in a Chrome browser using the Stadia site.

Source: MobileSyrup + TechCrunch