STADIA DIRECTOR: WE’RE GOING TO ‘FEEL GREAT’ ABOUT ALL OUR GAMES MOVING TO THE CLOUD

Stadia director of product Andrey Doronichev emphasized the benefits of the cloud in a Reddit AMA.

Reddit AMA featuring Stadia director of product Andrey Doronichev that took place yesterday didn’t serve up a lot of new information about what we can look forward to in Google’s upcoming streaming games service. But it did offer a little bit of insight into what the service is (and is not), and what will happen to your games if Stadia goes the way of Google Plus.

“To be clear, Stadia Pro is not ‘Netflix for Games’ like some people have mentioned, a closer comparison would be like Xbox Live Gold or Playstation Plus. The Pro subscribers get 4K/HDR streaming, 5.1 sound, exclusive discounts and access to some free games. Roughly one free game per month give or take,” Doronichev wrote.

Pro subscribers who let their subscriptions lapse will lose those free games, he exaplined, but will get them back if they re-sub. They will not be given any free games they missed while they were unsubscribed, however. Actual free-to-play games may be coming to the platform as well, but Doronichev said Google isn’t ready to share information on that just yet.

Aside from the free games for Pro subscribers, Stadia users will have to purchase their games through the service – hence the ‘not Netflix’ comment – and while pricing models haven’t been announced yet, Stadia head Phil Harrison said last month that he expects they’ll cost the same as on any other platform or storefront. So what happens to those games (and that money) if Stadia is discontinued?