IMAGE: HAYDEN DINGMAN MAY 2020 PCWorld 41
Google’s Stadia is finally ‘free’
now, but the game-streaming
service still comes with caveats
The quotation marks are doing a lot of heavy lifting in that headline. BY HAYDEN DINGMAN
W
e reviewed Google Stadia
in November (go.pcworld.
com/gsrv), calling it “a
glimpse of a future some
other company will probably perfect.” The
underlying tech? Solid. The platform and
business model? Disastrous.
Not much has changed in the ensuing
months, except now it’s free. Ish. Kind of.
Google announced April 8 (go.pcworld.
com/gann) that it’s no longer restricting
Stadia to those who bought the $130
Founder’s Edition hardware kit (go.pcworld.
com/130k). Anyone with a Gmail account can