Legislators and regulators might want to break it apart but there is one rather superficial advantage to Google owning multiple properties and businesses. It makes it easier for the company to offer promos and bonuses across its different services, whether they may be directly related or not. Such an example is Google’s game streaming service, Stadia, which has just gained some perks for those with family plans as well as those with subscribed to Google One’s cloud storage service.
Of course, almost all of these services, paid or free, are mostly bound to a Google account, the one common factor that makes it possible to share resources or features. For example, if you have a Google Family Group, you can now share Stadia games with members of that group, even if those members don’t have a Stadia subscription themselves.
Now Google is also bridging cloud gaming and cloud storage together through a Google One promo. Subscribers to Google paid cloud storage will be able to use Stadia Pro for free for three months, no strings attached. The only hard requirement, other than being a paying Google One subscriber in the US, is that you don’t have an active or past Stadia Pro subscription.
You can cancel any time within the three-month period and, in fact, you will have to cancel if you don’t want to be automatically charged $9.99 per month after the free trial is over. Do note that, just like with a normal Stadia Pro subscription, you lose access to free games and addons claimed with the Pro account. Of course, you still get to keep the games you did purchase during that period.
This three-month Stadia Pro offer matches what Google has available for new Chromebook and Pixel phone owners. Somewhat ironically, the one Google platform where Stadia remains unavailable is Android TV, though that could change soon with the launch of the new Chromecast with Google TV, which is pretty much a custom experience on top of Android TV.