Google gives free Stadia Pro trials to some YouTube Premium users

Google launched its game streaming service late last year to lukewarm reception. Now, some YouTube Premium subscribers are reportedly getting free 3-month Stadia Pro trials.

As reported by 9to5Google, YouTube Premium users shared the news on Twitter, along with the email they received from Google, that went: "We’re showing members some love by gifting you 3 months of Stadia Pro. Enjoy Google’s new gaming platform — on us."

Although currently all reports are coming from users in the UK, Google has reportedly confirmed the trials will also be available to existing YouTube Premium users in the US. The gifted trials are equal to a Google Stadia Premiere Edition, costing $129. That package allows for playing games in 60 frames-per-second, and in up to 4K resolution, along with support for 5.1 surround sound. Those features however vary greatly depending on the user's network, device, and even the game being played.

Some of the Triple-A games available for free with a Stadia Premiere Edition are Destiny 2, GRID and Metro Exodus.

YouTube Premium itself costs a monthly $11.99 and offers YouTube Originals, downloading videos for offline viewing, the YouTube Music service bundled in, and no ads on any YouTube videos.

This is likely a smart strategy by Google, taking advantage of YouTube's immense popularity and massive gaming community, to help popularize Stadia. And although Stadia wasn't too well-received initially, with reviewers reporting blurry graphics in certain games, and overall sub-par visuals as compared to owning and using a game console, it still has a silicon valley giant behind it, and is only going to improve.

Recently, we reported on Chinese giants Tencent and Huawei also working on their own cloud gaming platform, which is likely to become a serious competitor to Google's Stadia in no time. Currently available competitor services are Playstation Now, NVIDIA GeForce Now and Microsoft's Project xCloud.

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