Google Stadia: Everything you need to know

Google Stadia had something of a rough launch earlier this week, between less-than-stellar reviews and a slow-going rollout of invite codes to Founders. The latter issue is now behind us, with Google announcing that all Stadia Founder’s Edition invite codes have been sent, along with the shipping dates for the Premiere Edition.

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Google Stadia launched to the world (or at least 14 of its countries) yesterday, and many of the early reviews painted a picture that Stadia just isn’t living up to any of its promises. We took some time to go hands-on with Google Stadia and our first impression is that it really, truly works.

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This morning, a bit of misinformation surrounding Google Stadia was spread — starting from Stadia’s own Twitter account — saying that Stadia Pro members will lose the games they purchased at a discount when they unsubscribe from Stadia Pro. We have confirmed that this is not the case.

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Since all of Google Stadia’s power is up in the cloud it can run on even super low-end hardware including Google’s Chromecast streaming dongle. However, some early Stadia players are reporting that their Chromecast Ultra units are overheating to the point of turning off while playing games.

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Gamers worldwide have been looking forward to the launch of Google Stadia, for the past eight months. Today, many of those who pre-ordered the Stadia Founders Edition are not receiving their invite code to start playing, but Google is actively working on a solution to the problem.

Update: Google has broadly confirmed who has and has not been sent their invite code, and how codes will be sent going forward.

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Google Stadia just went live this week, and by some miracle, most of the 9to5Google team already have their codes to play. It’s only been a mere 24 hours so far, but there are a handful of titles we’re playing already. What Google Stadia games are you playing?

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To make playing games on your phone more comfortable on Stadia, Google is selling a unique accessory. The “CLAW” is designed to mount your phone on the Stadia Controller, but it actually damages the controller itself.

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Google Stadia has arrived! At least, it has for early adopters. If you’re getting in on Stadia early, here’s how to get your invite code from Google, set up your account, and claim your Stadia name.

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Google Stadia, as a game streaming service that can run at up to 4k and 60 frames per second, is very demanding on your internet connection. So we’ve collected a few ways you can improve your internet connection to Google Stadia to be both better and faster and have less lag.

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Google this morning started shipping Stadia Founder’s Edition. As the game streaming service does not launch until 9 AM PT tomorrow, Stadia Codes are not being emailed until tomorrow.

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Rumored for the past several years, Google’s entry into gaming was made official this March. Stadia was slowly detailed over the next eight months and it’s today officially launching for the first gamers in 14 countries.

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The initial reviews of Google Stadia are out as of yesterday, and the consensus seems to be that it works pretty well, actually. But that technical accomplishment is overshadowed by the fact that many of the service’s notable feature promises are half-baked, and others just aren’t here yet. This functional Google Stadia beta is only raising concerns about the platform at a time when it already has little room for messaging error.

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With Stadia launching in less than an hour, Google has published new support documents that should explain all day one capabilities. They detail the return policy, Parties/Voice chat, and how many screenshots or video clips you can capture with Stadia Pro.

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Google Stadia’s early reviews are less than stellar and it’s bringing up a lot of negativity around the service. In a lively debate with some friends about the future of the platform, something became very clear to me — Google Stadia won’t matter for about a year.

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Google Stadia goes live for the first users tomorrow but, today, embargoes have lifted on reviews of the new service from dozens of outlets. So far, critics are saying that Google Stadia’s tech is solid, but it’s lacking on games and features, meaning that most people should probably just wait.

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Google Stadia is inching every closer to release and the bigwigs at Alphabet are punting it as a literal game changer. So how does Stadia work? If you’re wondering what the deal with Stadia is, we’ll break it down to the basics for you.

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Today saw the Stadia website go live, and we’ve been digging pretty deeply into the code for last-minute details on the cloud gaming platform’s features. Just two days from launch, our Stadia.com teardown managed to find a few hidden pages and messages as they gradually become accessible.

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