Google says Stadia price, games and launch details coming ‘this summer’

Google has confirmed that pricing, games lineup and launch information for its Stadia game streaming service will be revealed sometime “this summer.”

Using its massive cloud computing network, Google intends to stream top-notch gaming experiences to all kinds of devices, including smartphones, tablets and low-level Chromebooks.

However, there are many questions that still remain about the service. When Google unveiled Stadia at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco in March, it notably focused on the service’s technical specifications without diving into details on games lineup, launch timing or pricing.

For instance, Google revealed that Stadia can stream games in 1080p at 60fps on an internet connection of 25mbps or up to 4K HDR gameplay at around 30mbps. That said, the company has so far only confirmed four specific titles for Stadia — Canadian-made Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Doom Eternal and NBA 2K19. Beyond that, Google has simply stated it’s shipped Stadia development kits to more than 100 studios around the world.

This summer, three of the wishes you’ve been asking for will finally be granted:
? Price Reveal
? Game Announcements
? Launch Info

Stay tuned here for more Stadia details coming soon.

— Stadia (@GoogleStadia) May 24, 2019

The company has also formed its own first-party Stadia development studio headed up by Canadian video game executive Jade Raymond, the prolific producer of a number of Assassin’s Creed games and the founder of Ubisoft Toronto and Montreal’s EA Motive. However, it’s currently unclear exactly what Raymond’s team is working on.

Google has also only confirmed a vague 2019 release window for Stadia, with Canada, the U.S., U.K. and parts of Europe being initial launch markets. Meanwhile, there’s no indication as to how much this service will cost.

Further, while Stadia supports keyboards and third-party gamepads, Google is pushing its official Canadian-made Stadia controller for reduced input lag and some of the service’s main features, like Google Assistant integration and YouTube gameplay streaming. Pricing for this controller has similarly not yet been revealed.

Back at GDC, Google vice president, GM and Stadia boss Phil Harrison told Polygon that more information on Stadia would come by June. At the time, he wouldn’t confirm if this meant Google would be at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), the video game industry’s major June trade event where companies typically make big announcements.

With E3 starting on June 11th and no word since from Google, it doesn’t seem likely that the company will be in attendance with Stadia. As well, given that “summer” is a broader window, it’s unclear if Google still plans to make Stadia announcements in June or if it will come later in the season.

In the meantime, Microsoft has recently revealed new details on its own mysterious game streaming service, Project xCloud.