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Earlier today, we reported on the arrival of Buddy Passes for Stadia Pro users. These passes allow for Stadia Pro users to send a 3-month invite to a select friend and gift them with a full-blown trial of Stadia Pro for absolutely free. It is one of the many features Stadia promised for launch that didn’t quite make it to the actual beginnings of the streaming game service. We’re glad to see those promises starting to take shape.
Another thing promised to Stadia Pro users was free content. No, Stadia was never meant to be a subscription-based gaming model, but the $9.99/mo. fee for the Pro level of Stadia was also supposed to come with some free incentives to keep the subscription active.
Google made good on this for November with the inclusion of the full Destiny 2 game with all the DLC content included for absolutely free along with Samurai Shodown right out of the gate. With December not quite upon us, Google has already announced the free games included in the Pro subscription for the final month of 2019: Tomb Raider Definitive Edition and a Farming Simulator 2019.
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Though both are titles many will be excited by, I’d wager the free version of Farming Simulator 2019 will be the most sought after. With a large player base, full 4K/60 support, and cross-play with PC all on offer, this $49.99 game will be big draw for many new Stadia users.
Perhaps, like me, you are in the camp of people who bought one or both of these games already and now you’ve purchased a game that is being offered to you for free. After all, Tomb Raider Definitive Edition is only $10 for Pro users right now, so it is an easy buy. Fortunately, returns are a breeze with Stadia games if you know what to do and where to do it. We’ve put up a post about that here if you need to return either of these games or any other one in the future, and I can say with confidence that it works every time and is quite simple as long as you return within 14 days AND within 2 hours of game play.
I’m excited to see Google continuing to follow through on early promises for Stadia and can’t wait to see what new games come our way in 2020 as the Stadia library continues to grow and the player base keeps expanding. Now we just need to get Family Sharing, Stadia Connect, State Share and Crowd Play up and running. One thing at a time, I suppose.
