44 PCWorld MAY 2020NEWS GOOGLE’S STADIA IS FINALLY ‘FREE’
A selection of some of the games available on Google Stadia.Google added Achievements, which really
makes me wonder what’s taking Epic so long.
You can also stream 4K on your PC (through
Chrome), which somehow wasn’t a feature in
November. To its credit, Google hasn’t left
Stadia to die—yet.
But it’s still not a platform I’d feel
comfortable recommending. It might win
some converts given the current state of the
world, as I imagine some people are trapped
at home with limited hardware and a lot of
free time. If you’ve got a crappy laptop and
the Chrome browser, you can play Destiny 2.That’s always been the promise of Stadia, and
that’s still pretty damn cool.
Tech aside, though, everything about
Stadia feels so janky. The interface is clunky,
the prices are absurd, and it still all but
requires you to spend $130 on the Premier
Edition to get the full Stadia experience. I’ll let
you know the moment Google changes my
mind, but it’s been five months and, if
anything, I feel less sold on Stadia.
Get your free months of Stadia Pro, sure.
Give it a try—but keep an eye on that auto-
renew.