Google Stadia Gifts Founders An Extra Buddy Pass
The dust storm swirling around Google Stadia seems to have finally died down, which can mean one of two things. Either it has finally gotten through its teething pains and settled into normal operations or interest in Google's somewhat divisive game streaming platform. The latter might hardly be the case given the holiday season that approaches and the news surrounding new consoles and games. And to ensure that more people hear the news and get to experience it, Google is giving away Buddy Passes for Founders to share with their, well, buddies.
The Buddy Pass is one of the few perks that the Google Stadia Founders Edition offered to early believers, something that even later Premiere Edition buyers couldn't get. It was, of course, Google's not so subtle way to get people into the ecosystem that would normally stay away from such shiny new tech. After all, you're getting almost the same subscription access for three months at no cost just by being a Founder's friend.
The Buddy Pass is practically a three-month free trial to a Stadia Pro subscription with no limitation to what games are available. Those include the monthly free titles but those can only be accessed as long as the Pro subscription is active. And, of course, this presumes the Buddy has a Stadia-compatible device to play on in the first place.
Google presents this extra Buddy Pass as a holiday gift to Founders, though some of those will probably see it more as making amends. Given the headache that came during the first days of launch, those early subscribers might feel entitled to some compensation, though they might be expecting something they can use for themselves rather than something they have to give someone else.
Stadia has had quite a rough launch, with issues ranging from distribution of activation keys to streaming quality to even the early selection of games. While the roster hasn't grown yet, the platform has added two new free games for December, offering refunds to those who already purchased them at launch. The service is indeed improving little by little but it might be too early to say how much of a commercial success or flop it will be.