I’ve been a Stadia Pro subscriber on and off since the early days, taking advantage of various free promos during the first six months after the initial launch. I started my regular paid subscription just after the Covid-19 restrictions kicked in. This month, I cancelled it.
Why? Simple: with Stadia Pro, I have too many games and not enough time.
Wait, why is too many games an problem? Well, let me explain.
Throughout my time with Stadia Pro, in addition to exploring the Stadia Pro games I’ve taken advantage of a number of promos to buy discounted games on Stadia. The first one I actually paid money for was Grid. Then, The Crew 2 and Jedi: Fallen Order. Quite honestly, those three games by themselves could keep my busy for months. These three by themselves could keep me occupied for months.
Add to that games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 5, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Darkside Detective, FIFA 21, Tomb Raider Definite Edition and Rise of the Tomb Raider. Oh, and let’s not forget Red Dead Redemption 2, my most recent purchase.
Of the games above, I’ve only spent a significant amount of time on Grid, The Crew 2, Jedi Fallen Order, AC Valhalla and RDR2. The rest of the time I spent playing Stadia Pro games.
In other words, Stadia Pro kept me from playing the games I had already paid for, simply because I felt I needed to play the Pro games to make it worth the money I was paying for it every month. The other problem is time: with full time work, a family and other activities, there’s only a limited amount of hours I have every week to play games.
Not to mention there are just too many of them to realistically be able to get through, even if I focused only on the games I find interesting. Of all the games on Pro, those I’ve really spent any significant time on are Metro 2033 Redux, Metro Last Light Redux, Control, The Darkside Detective, F1 2020 and Dirt 5. The others I’ve mostly sampled here and there. For a casual gamer like me, that’s quite a bit.
The March Pro lineup didn’t hold any appeal to me so I figured it was about time to try a few months without Pro and see how it goes. Same with the April lineup. There weren’t any games I feel I absolutely have to play, or that I don’t own elsewhere.
What has been the effect of this decision? As it turns out, I’m actually dedicating more time to Stadia than I expected. I’ve sunk almost twenty hours into RDR2 over the last couple of weeks, which is a lot of game time for me. I’m taking my time, I’m enjoying myself, instead of stressing over finishing a game before the next batch comes along. That’s exactly where I want to be: play the games I really want, that I paid for, and enjoy them.
Of course, I’m under no illusion that I’ll be able to finish all of these games. The important thing is that I’m enjoying the games I play, and that’s more important than picking up every great gaming deal out there.
As a result, I’ll keep my subscription on hold for now. It’s not that I have anything against Stadia Pro. It’s affordable and there’s a bunch of good games I’d still love to play in the lineup. But, I need to get through what I’ve paid for first. I’m hoarding enough games on Steam and other platforms. I’ll keep an eye on the monthly games and if something looks interesting, I’ll subscribe for a month or two to claim the games at least, should I decide to re-subscribe. But, for now, I’m going to enjoy the games I paid for which, thanks to Stadia, I can enjoy without paying a monthly fee for.
I’m curious, how do you approach the growing Pro catalogue and limited time to play it all (should that be the case)?