Google partners with Verizon for Free Stadia promotion

Verizon’s Fios Gigabit sounds like a lock for good performance out of Google’s Stadia platform. The service boasts download speeds as fast as 940 Mbps, and uploads as fast as 880 Mbps. My internet service gives me around 35-40 Mbps on a good day, and my Stadia has been pretty much rock solid lately. In fact, the performance has been so good that I often forget that I am playing on a streaming service.

Last night, Google announced that they were teaming with Verizon to offer free Stadia Premiere Editions to new Verizon Fios customers. This is an excellent deal for a lot of reasons. The Stadia Premiere Edition (which normally retails for $129.99) includes the Stadia Controller, a Chromecast Ultra, and a three-month subscription to Stadia Pro – which will score users a number of decent games to play around with. After three months, subscribers will be on the hook for Stadia’s $9.99 monthly subscription (if they decided to continue), but three months ought to be more than adequate for users to decide whether they are in on Stadia or not.

I’m honestly not terribly familiar with Verizon’s Fios Gigabit service, but the Stadia now occupies at least 50% of my gaming time - so I can attest to its quality. If you are considering Verizon’s internet, this is one heck of a bonus for signing up. It certainly won’t hurt Google to get more of these things out into the market. This feels like a win-win.

Keep an eye on Gaming Nexus for more Stadia news moving forward. We are continuing to try out new Stadia functionality as it goes live, and will post our impressions as we go.