Google’s new Stadia platform is just starting, but it is already trying to get in the same groove as Microsoft, Sony, and Epic with their free game promotions. Stadia Pro subscribers (who are the only people able to use the service as of now) will be getting complimentary copies of both Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition and Farming Simulator 19 Platinum Edition as part of their ongoing subscription. The tweet from Stadia implies that Stadia Pro will continue to include both Destiny 2: The Collection and Samurai Showdown, making for a total of four free games for Stadia founders.
https://twitter.com/googlestadia/status/1199403828128276480?s=21
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As a refresher, Stadia Pro works in the same way as Games with Gold and PlayStation Plus. Subscribers get access to these “free” games as long as their subscription is active. If they want to bump things down to a free Base plan when that launches in 2020, they’ll lose access to those games until they either re-up their payments or purchase the games individually. This means that anyone who bought either of these two free games in the last two weeks does get some return on their investment, but its a cold comfort considering how little time the platform has been on the market.
This is technically the second addition to the Stadia Pro subscription, as Samurai Showdown was announced as a late addition right before its November launch. Destiny 2 recently launched as free-to-play on Steam and Stadia, although The Collection includes all that game’s premium DLC. Stadia’s launch has been plagued with reports of misreported resolutions, low online populations, a weak launch lineup, and other problems. Other founders are still waiting for their Stadia package to arrive, as not everyone got theirs on launch day. As far as technical issues go, Google has claimed that games will get better when developers get more used to the platform, which will fully launch to the public sometime in 2020.
