Google Stadia plans to offer free games to its subscribers. According to Google Stadia Vice President Phil Harrison, they are considering free game giveaways to subscribers. Google Stadia is giving away free subscriptions already to those who buy games from Google.
But free subscriptions aren’t as encouraging to consumers as free games. Google has a paid subscription model for Stadia yet if you buy the game from Google you can play it for free. The company didn’t mention how much Stadia games will cost. Still, it is clear that the pricing will be competitive with the industry.
Pricing for digital games is a long-running debate. Should digital games cost less compared to their physical counterparts? Well, fans sure seem to think so. Distribution cost is low while the manufacturing cost is none.
Another interesting aspect of digital games is the lack of discounts. Physical games discounts are normal in the weeks following launch. Why don’t we at least see digital games discounted as fast as physical copies? Ubisoft is a major Google Stadia partner and back in 2015, this question came up to CEO Yves Guillemot. Digital is more reactive than physical but at the same time it doesn’t react as fast on consoles, he said.
Hence, why we see more physical sales on consoles compared to PC. It is also why PC games see discounts in the weeks following launch. Meanwhile, digital games cost the same on consoles for months.
Digital is more reactive than what we put in stores, but at the same time, it doesn’t react as fast on consoles than it does on PC. What we can say is that when games are older than one year, digital is a lot more dynamic on console because there are fewer units in stores.
It’s a new business, a new trend, and we think all this will get more in line with time, but for sure, at the moment you see all sorts of prices depending on who is doing a promotion for that specific week. “If you look at the PC [post-release discount] trend, I think you will see that on consoles, but you will have to wait a little bit of time for that to happen with the same speed.
In his interview, Yves suggested that Ubisoft’s digital discount strategy may change in the future. And now, we are 4 years into the future since Yves did the interview. We are seeing the dawn of digital games and streaming platforms like Google Stadia. It is about time publishers reconsider their pricing model for digital games.
Google Stadia subscription pricing model is already confirmed but what we need to know about are the games. How much will Stadia games cost? But the good news is that at least Stadia performance reviews are positive. The lag and latency-free experience has impressed E3.
Still, Google Stadia requirements can’t be met by the majority of the world. Based on Google Stadia requirements we can safely say that it’ll take sometime before streaming is a worldwide thing.
Source: Boogie2988
