Stadia this year is moving to add instant access free game trials, along with demos, easier Stadia Store browsing, and more. A new report from The Verge lays out Google’s future plans for the cloud gaming service. A vision of Stadia that lets players more easily jump into a game and play with little to no barriers.
The Stadia of today requires users to sign up for a free account and log in before they can start playing. But that probably won’t always be the case. Today at Google’s ‘Google For Games Developer Summit’ the company touched on various changes it’s working on for the service. Aimed at bringing “less friction” for developers and players to access games.
Stadia to get free game trials without signing in
One of the key pillars of Stadia’s future endeavors appears to be reducing the friction between the developer and the player. That is, reducing the friction for developers to get their games into the hands of players. And reducing the friction for the player in trying out said games.
This will reportedly culminate at some point in the ability to access free game trials that won’t require players to log in with their Google account. They’d simply be able to click on a link from YouTube, a Google ad, or a social media post. Then immediately jump into a game and test out a chunk of it.
Game trials could last for up to 60 minutes or more, giving players an ample amount of time to test games before they decide to buy. Google also states that the length of click to play trials would be decided by the developer.
Making it easier to find Stadia games
In addition to click to play trials, Google is also seeking to make searching and browsing for Stadia games a simpler process. This includes finding click to play trials and game demos in the Stadia Store. As well as being able to browse titles without needing to log in with an account.
In fact, you won’t even need to create an account. You’ll be able to browse immediately with no hassle. Just like you would if you were browsing games through Amazon, GameStop, Best Buy, and other retailers. You can watch the full segment on Stadia from Google’s game dev summit below. You’ll also be able to check out a click to play trial of Risk of Rain 2 starting today.