Google Stadia is adopting free time-limited game trials as a part of its game streaming service.
Notably, this means you can try out games in time-allotted bursts without having to download them, which is something that was controversially included in the recently announced PlayStation game trials system.
As noted by Eurogamer, Hello Engineer usually costs £19.99, or is free with Stadia Pro, but you can snag a 30 minute free game trial that can be streamed straight away, as long as your internet connection holds.
A Google Stadia representative also spoke to The Verge, and told them that “this is an experiment Google’s running over the next couple of months, and it’ll come to other select titles in the weeks to come. It won’t always be 30-minute sessions, and you may not see the same games as everyone else, though.”
If this becomes a more regular feature for Stadia, it could circumvent the need for developers to create specific demo downloads, but the full scope of the Stadia game trial system remains to be seen.
There are a few other games that are truly free on Stadia right now, like Destiny 2 and Super Bomberman R Online, for you to try out without spending the £8.99 a month for a Stadia Pro subscription.
Last we heard of Google Stadia, its director of games Jack Buser left the platform as they were promoted to Google Cloud. This followed a job listing that seemed to indicate that Stadia is going the route of supporting other developers, and thus completely exiting the first-party publishing space for all future releases.
In other news, tonight PlayStation is hosting a State of Play games showcase for third party titles, and we have all the info and how to watch it.
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