There was some really good stuff - like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mortal Kombat 11 - plus some games that are probably less appealing to folks like Just Dance 2020.Stadia had some exclusives in its collection, including a child’s first horror game called GYLT. It also hosts highly anticipated titles like Watch Dogs Legion, Baldur’s Gate 3, Marvel’s Avengers, and Cyberpunk 2077. Google Stadia is available to buy right now, but only in 14 territories including the UK, US and Canada. Only the Pro Stadia subscription is available from launch though, with the Base (free) subscription launching at a later date in 2020. Google Stadia is set to launch this November but a solid date is yet to be confirmed. When pressed, a Google rep told me that it would be ready to "share a specific date soon" and that we will "have to wait to see why" we haven't received that information already. Google also confirmed that the Stadia Premiere Edition will ship shortly after the Founders Edition bundle – giving Founders the opportunity to secure their Stadia Name – and that the Premiere Edition bundle will be the "the new version of Stadia that we're going to have for the foreseeable future". Yes, but the free options have changed. In April 2020, Google Stadia offered a free option to anyone who signed up - two complimentary months of Stadia Pro and all the free games that come with it. If you already had a Stadia Pro subscription, your next two months are on Google. Google Stadia is the name of Google's former game-streaming service, as well as the name of the storefront from which you’ll buy games. Anything you bought was yours to keep, and you'd likely have paid full price for all the games you'd find on the Stadia store. However, if you're already invested in Stadia, any existing games you own will no longer be accessible.

If you're a Stadia Pro member, the available games change month-to-month, but you can claim a game and keep it as long as you keep your subscription. If you cancel your subscription, you'll be able to play that game until the remainder of subscription period runs out - and if you re-up your Stadia Pro down the line, you'll get access to those games again.

Google Stadia could have been the be-all, end-all game-streaming platform

Bear in mind the Xbox One X, the most powerful console on the market currently, can only muster 6 teraflops. It’s hard to get a handle on exactly how well it’ll perform based on this, seeing as teraflops don’t really indicate performance, but it shows that there’s some serious grunt going on behind the scenes. For our last test, we tried Stadia on a new Wi-Fi network that, according to an Ookla speed test, maxed out around 15Mbps. Going into this test we expected the worst - that Stadia would basically be unplayable. Thankfully we were wrong.

Think about the way the web works – you can easily share a link and it works seamlessly. We want games to feel that way too: instantly enjoyable with access for everyone,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said, introducing Stadia. Unsurprisingly, Google has chosen its own smartphones to be the sole option for Stadia streaming on launch. Here’s every phone confirmed for Stadia so far: For this test, we tried something that we knew would look good on a 4K HDR TV - Destiny 2 - Cast from the Stadia app on our phone to Chromecast Ultra in the living room. Despite our reservations, Destiny 2 ran in 4K/60 without any issues on a 50Mbps wireless connection with no noticeable delays or artifacting - even in particularly intense firefights. At one time, you could only access Stadia through a Stadia Pro subscription, but that requirement has since been lifted. You're now allowed to use Stadia for free. In fact we even saw free demos periodically that you can try at no cost.

Cloud gaming, or streaming games without the need for physical copies, renders games on a remote server instead of your local device. That game is then streamed to your device while your input on the controller (or mouse and keyboard) is sent to the server.You can use touch controls on an tablet or mobile phone. While Google is clear that Stadia itself is not a box (“the data centre is your platform”), the company has made a custom gamepad for it. At a glance, it looks a bit like an Xbox pad has lost a bit of weight, but Google highlights two important buttons that hint at where it seems to see Stadia as going in the long term. The capture button instantly shares with YouTube via a live stream, while the Google Assistant button opens a built-in microphone for assistance and special features within games.

Unsurprisingly for a service that's closed down, Google Stadia hardware sales have been suspended. You also can't buy games, new controllers (without going second-hand) or a Stadia Pro subscription, either. Last but not least you need a connection to the internet, something we thought would be an early nail in the platform’s coffin considering how few of us have fibre connections. That being said, Google Stadia worked on 10Mbps connections and only requires 35Mbps for full 4K HDR/60fps. Story updated to reflect that the Premiere Edition will cost €129.00 in Europe, not €69.00 – which is the price of a standalone Stadia controller. While Google plans for Stadia to work on any Android smartphone in the future, the app will only be available for select handsets at launch. Admittedly, this is probably the way we’ll continue to play games on Stadia, especially those that require ultra-specific timing (shooters and fighting games, as you’ll see in a second) or games that simply work better with a keyboard and mouse.As tempting as the deal is, this is probably a sign that things aren’t going too well for the cloud-based gaming platform. Google will be hoping getting the hardware into more people’s hands will help to boost adoption. The Premiere Edition replaced the Founder's Edition on the Google Store, after the latter sold out. The Founder's Edition bundle included a Chromecast Ultra, a limited-edition Night Blue Stadia Controller, a three-month Stadia Pro subscription, and a buddy pass that let you gift three months of Stadia Pro to a friend. Using a Pixel 3a XL supplied by Google for our review, we put the streaming service to the test using the absolute minimum specs to see how it would perform with a lag-sensitive game like Mortal Kombat 11 and while there certainly were a number of slowdowns that we’ll describe in a second, most of the time we saw no noticeable issues. On a 150Mbps hard-wired connection, Stadia is amazing - it’s like playing a game stored locally on your PC.