Google Stadia is now free to use, but it’s still not in South Africa

Because we’re all stuck at home now, online services across the board have started waiving subscription fees. You know, we need to keep busy somehow, and from fitness to online courses, many have made their services free for the time being. 

Now Google Stadia has decided to make its cloud gaming service free for two months. The offer is rolling out over the next 48 hours to the 14 countries where the service is supported, as long as users have a Gmail account. Unfortunately, however, South Africa isn’t listed as one of those 14 countries…

New users can go ahead and sign up on Stadia’s website with a Gmail account. Players who sign up today during this free trial will be able to access Stadia’s Pro subscription tier level for free (for two months), with the option to either continue a $10/month (Almost R200 is a bit steep, thanks to the pummelled exchange rate) subscription. But you’ll be able to unsubscribe after the free trial period. 

The Pro subscription tier will allow you to download free games, and the current list is pretty decent: 

• Destiny 2: The Collection
• GRID
• Gylt
• SteamWorld Dig 2
• SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech
• Serious Sam Collection
• Spitlings
• Stacks on Stacks (on Stacks)
• Thumper

We don’t know when Stadia will make its way to South Africa. It all depends on Google having local servers to decrease latency — this is especially important on cloud-gaming platforms. Let’s hold thumbs.