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. 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. Stepping down from a hardwired connection to a dual-band 5GHz connection, Stadia still held up immensely well with only small issues in the audio impairing an otherwise flawless performance. 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".

The Stadia Premiere Edition will cost €129.00 in Europe, with UK, US, and CAD pricing to be announced once the Founders Edition bundle sells out in those territories. To secure yourself the bundle, you'll want to head over to the Google Store.

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. It also appears to be a no-strings-type situation with the only catch being the need to sign up for a month of Stadia Pro, but there’s a one-month free trial available to those users anyway. 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. 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. Since launch, Google added over 100 new titles to the library. What that tells us is that Google has the power and budget to drop a whole bunch of new games in the same way that Microsoft does with Xbox Game Pass but, also like Game Pass, the well of content will always be limited when compared to other services like Steam that are much less of a walled garden and are entirely more community-driven.

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: 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. Once live on YouTube, viewers can drop into your game at the touch of their button, thanks to a feature known as Crowd Play. Likewise, Google has touted the ability to start playing a game straight after watching its trailer on YouTube, a potentially very clever use of Google's two platforms. What games are on Google Stadia?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. On a 150Mbps hard-wired connection, Stadia is amazing - it’s like playing a game stored locally on your PC. Stadia Base will also launch in 2020, which allows users to use Google’s streaming platform for free, but the resolution will be capped at Full HD at 60fps. You’ll also be limited to stereo sound instead of surround sound. There will be no monthly free game with this subscription. 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. Again, there was a minor delay when the game is buffering at the very beginning and we did notice a small half-second delay between an on-screen action (like firing a gun) to the sound effect actually playing on the TV, but there was no impact on the gameplay.

There are plenty of titles available on Google Stadia, spanning a range of genres. These include shoot 'em-ups like Red Dead Redemption 2, Superhot and Doom Eternal, sports sims like NBA 2K20 and MotoGP 20, and beat 'em-ups like Mortal Combat 11 and RPGs like Octopath Traveler. 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.

Supported devices

In the future, it should let you pull up videos while you're gaming, so you can watch a walkthrough guide on how to complete a certain part without even leaving the game. Neat. 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.