Google’s high-profile cloud gaming platform Stadia, which was launched in the past six months, was officially launched on November 19.
It’s still a service for a few people—only 14 countries, including the US and the UK, and Only users who have purchased the $129 “Founder Edition” package can experience it.
This package includes a Stadia official handle and a Chromecast Ultra TV stick, plus a 3-month “Pro” member, which is equivalent to getting an early trial.
Strictly speaking, based on the nature of cloud games, Stadia does not impose too many mandatory requirements on local hardware. It doesn’t have a physical game console, the game runs entirely on the Google server side, so there is no download process.
In an ideal world, you only have a networked device that can open Chrome, and you can plug in the PS4/Xbox’s handles.
But Google still wants users to buy a handle for their own platform. After all, this may be the only hardware product that has a relationship with the Stadia platform.