Why You Probably Shouldn’t Pay for the “Stadia Beta” In November

Google

Google’s Stadia streaming system is the most exciting thing to happen to the gaming market in years. You can try it out first-hand in November…and you probably shouldn’t.

Why not? Because the “Founder’s Edition” currently on sale is essentially an elaborate beta test, an “early access” sale in slightly more modern terms. There’s nothing wrong with that, but Google’s advertising it as if it’s something special and exclusive. That just isn’t the case: it’s a relatively expensive way to be Google’s guinea pig for a streaming setup that won’t be truly complete until 2020. Unless you’re just desperate to get in early, save your money and wait for the full rollout next year.

What Does the Founder’s Edition Get You?

Google is currently offering the Stadia “Founder’s Edition” for pre-order. Come November, buying the $130 package will be the only way to get into Stadia until 2020. The package includes a Chromecast Ultra (which has been on the market for nearly three years already) and the Wi-Fi powered Stadia controller.

The “Founder’s Edition” includes the Stadia Wi-Fi controller and a Chromecast Ultra for $130. Google

Since the Stadia controller costs $70 on its own, and the Chromecast Ultra is $60, you’re not saving any money on the hardware. You will get the first three months of access to the Stadia system for free, a $30 value. And the pleasure of knowing you’re in before everyone else, of course, assuming you live in one of the 14 supported countries and your home connection can handle high-speed, low-latency video.

…But It’s Not the Real McCoy

Back at the Game Developers Conference in March, Google introduced Stadia as a revolutionary new platform that would let you play games anywhere, on any hardware. As it turns out, that’s not true, at least for the introductory period covered by the Founder’s Edition. In November you’ll be able to play on Chrome (Windows, MacOS, ChromeOS), a Chromecast (possibly just the Ultra), and Android phones…so long as you’ve bought a Google Pixel device.

Leaving huge amounts of iPhone and iPad users out in the cold, not to mention approximately a billion people who have Android phones not made by Google, strikes me as a deliberately limiting choice. Google isn’t trying to drive purchases of its (frankly) overpriced phones, so much as limiting mobile access to a relatively tiny pool of test users. The company wants to nail down the tricky business of streaming to relatively low-power devices, over Wi-Fi and mobile connections that are often less than ideal, before it widens to a broader audience.