Google Stadia has caused quite the stir ever since its reveal at the Game Developers Conference. The prospect of a cloud-based game streaming service that can seamlessly work on tablets, browsers, TVs, and whatnot seemed like a pipe-dream up till now. But Google seems committed to making it work, even if we lack numerous crucial details at this point.
One such detail is that of price. While Google will unveil its games catalogue in the Summer, the company didn’t really reveal how much it would charge for Stadia. GamingBolt thus asked IDC analyst Lewis Ward for his take in a recent interview.
Ward compared the service to Sony’s own PlayStation Now in terms of pricing. “PS Now lists for $20/month but they’ve offered discounts down to $10/month,” he said. “You have to make several assumptions about customer uptake, infrastructure costs, and what development studios are willing to get paid on a per-user or per minute of use basis to come up with a profitable and growing Stadia scenario, but my complete eyeball is that if Stadia can muster 500+ solid titles at launch and lays out a plan to add at least 50 new games/month, then $15/month feels about right.”
That’s a tall order for the company, even if Stadia is only being rolled out in the United States, UK, Europe, and Canada at launch. Can it support that many titles at launch and consistently add so many more after that, especially considering services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now currently don’t? We won’t have to wait long to find out – Google Stadia arrives in 2019. In the meantime, head here to learn more about what the service offers.
