
Google Stadia now free to anyone with a Gmail address - ingve
https://www.polygon.com/2020/4/8/21213551/google-stadia-free-pro-subscription
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king07828
Google figured out a magic formula:

1\. develop a service (e.g., search)

2\. provide the service for free to users

3\. sell ads (unobtrusively placed within the service) to marketers

4\. profit!

Most companies cannot seem to figure out (or afford to get to) step 3.
Google's new services generally muck up the formula. E.g., with Stadia,
they've broken the magic formula at both step 2 and step 3:

1\. develop Stadia

2\. provide Stadia to users for a monthly fee and/or per game fee (not free
means no network effect)

3\. ????

4\. Profit!

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harrylepotter
I don't know what is up with Stadia's marketing. It's like they've made the
announcement before they've updated their site to allow people in.. Couldn't
find a means of signing up without making a purchase.

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weare138
Same here. According to the Google announcement I found they're only offering
2 free months of Stadia Pro but you have to sign up for a subscription and
cancel after your 2 free months or pay the full $9.99/month.

 _Anyone who signs up will get two free months of Stadia Pro with instant
access to nine games, including GRID, Destiny 2: The Collection, and Thumper.
You can purchase even more games on the store, which will remain yours to play
even if you cancel your Stadia Pro subscription. If you’re already a paid
Stadia Pro subscriber, we won’t charge you for the next two months. After
that, Stadia Pro is $9.99 a month, but you can opt out of your subscription at
any time._

[https://blog.google/products/stadia/try-stadia-free-
today](https://blog.google/products/stadia/try-stadia-free-today)

~~~
harrylepotter
update: just sign up without putting anything in promo code field... seems to
let you through.

~~~
Alexmania
How did you sign up? It is asking for an invitation code.

NVM it works on browser by not entering a code, does not work when you try
that in iOS app

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myro
Can't find a way to start - it asks for some codes.. I'm in Sweden, account
set to Sweden. What's wrong?

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lazzlazzlazz
Using anything by Google (except Gmail, it seems) presents such significant
platform risk such as aggressive monetization controls, shutting down the
platform, accidental DMCA violations, and critically — being unable to exit
after — that I'm not sure "free" is good enough.

I'll try someone less likely to exploit the network I help them create.

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pcdoodle
Even if it's free, I'm not interested in this in any way. I don't want
developers to eventually be forced through another "orifice" as Jobs would
say.

