Google Stadia’s free demos could prove the value of game streaming

Last June, Google first revealed that it would be selling individual Stadia streaming games as full-priced à la carte purchases. At the time, we lamented that this old-fashioned business model ignored the service's greatest potential feature: convenience. The value of streaming media is often in the "ability to simply dive into a new work immediately, without having to think about whether it's worth the marginal cost of an additional purchase," as we wrote at the time.

Now, Google finally seems to be catching on to that idea, at least a little bit. Starting today, Google will begin offering time-limited, completely free demos for upcoming Stadia games, which can be played instantly in a Web browser simply by clicking on a link.

The program begins today with Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle, a 64-player competitive Battle Royale take on the classic maze game that evokes instant comparisons to Tetris 99 and Super Mario Bros. 35. You can try that game out right now just by clicking a link, with no downloads or installation required. While you will need a Google Stadia account to take part, you won't need to sign up for a "free trial" of Google's $10/month Stadia Pro subscription or even enter any payment information, Google says.

Google will extend the demo offer to two more games in the coming days: Sega's 4X strategy game Humankind gets a free streaming demo on October 21, while Ubisoft's Breath of the Wild-like adventure Immortals Fenyx Rising starts on October 22. All three demos will only be available for seven days, accessible via links found on the Stadia storefront and the YouTube trailers of the games themselves.

It’s a start

Sure, offering three free game demos for a week each isn't exactly going to set the gaming world on fire. But the move is Google's first step toward a business model that really highlights what makes game streaming unique and valuable. The ability to sample a wide variety of games instantly in a Web browser (or a mobile/Chromecast app) without the need to wait or even think about paying could be the killer feature that proves Stadia's value.

There are plenty of ways Google could experiment and expand on this streaming demo idea. Stadia could offer a 15-minute trial of every game in its catalog right now, for instance, or let anyone with a Google account choose a single one-hour demo every month to juice try-before-you-buy sales. Or maybe Stadia could go the YouTube/Twitch video route, offering a few minutes of free streaming gameplay in exchange for watching a short ad.

Google could let Stadia Pro subscribers share time-limited demos with their friends, turning those users into free marketers for the service. Stadia players could also offer invites to free multiplayer sessions in games they already own, à la Steam's Remote Play Together feature. Similarly, Stadia streamers who use Google's YouTube Gaming Live could get a handful of Stadia trial codes to hand out in the chat, offering instant access to interested viewers.

Even beyond free options, there's a lot of room for Stadia business models that go beyond just selling a game for full price. Stadia could offer convenient, cheap rentals for games, much like iTunes does for movies (and much like Redbox used to do for disc-based games). Or maybe Stadia users could pay a few dollars for an hour of undifferentiated Stadia gameplay time to be used across any game in the catalog.

Not all of these ideas would necessarily make sense from a business (or customer) perspective, and Google would have to carefully monitor the conversion rates to see if they're actually leading to more profits. Google's publishing partners would also have to be on board with any revenue-sharing plans that stemmed from these kinds of deals.

But that doesn't mean it's not worth trying. The added convenience and instant access of game streaming offers the potential to upend the way we think about trying and buying games. Here's hoping Google realizes that idea with more inventive distribution experiments going forward.