Search and ads giant Google has revealed a new Chromecast streaming device that costs just $50, but doesn't support the company's Stadia games service.

That's according to The Verge, which reports that support for the cloud games platform will be introduced at some time in the first half of 2021. At the moment, Stadia can be accessed using Google's Chromecast Ultra, which is a comparatively simple device next to the more advanced Chromecast that the company just announced. This hardware also features Google TV for one.

That being said, when Stadia was released, those pre-ordering controllers and Chromecast Ultra hardware would have access to the platform, but it took Google a month to enable all of these devices to use Stadia.

It does seem that users can sideload Stadia onto this new Chromecast, which there have also been reports of people – rather hilariously – getting Microsoft's xCloud streaming service working on the tech.

Google Stadia launched in November 2019 with a rather messy release window. This left many of us wondering what the hell was going on with the streaming service.

Since then, the company has made the Stadia Pro tier entirely free for two months and has ditched the free Stadia Base branding in favour of just having a level of service you can use without cost.

In June, Google cut the cost of its Premiere Edition to just $99. While lacking in first-party titles, the company's Stadia Games and Entertainment publishing arm is working with studios to bring content exclusively to the streaming service. One of these is Outcasters from British developer Splash Damage. We caught up with the studio to find out more about this project.