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Google ditches Stadia Base branding for free tier

Google ditches Stadia Base branding for free tier

Another week, another communications snafu to do with search and software giant Google's Stadia streaming service. The company has now launched the free tier of its Stadia streaming service, Base, but it bizarrely has axed that branding.

That's according to GamesIndustry.biz, which reports that the free tier was rolled out earlier in April when Google announced that it was making the premium Stadia Pro free for two months. That normally costs $9.99 per month.

In a Stadia Community blog post, the firm said that it had "decided to move away from" the Stadia Base name.

In April, the VP and GM of Stadia, Phil Harrison, said that Stadia Pro would be free for two months. The exec said that the default resolution had been changed to 1080p in order to save bandwidth as people self-isolate during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Stadia's launch at the end of 2019 was something of a mess, with the streaming service missing a wealth of features that had been announced previously. After revealing a rather weak launch line-up, Google revealed another ten games days before the platform was released.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.