To celebrate the one year anniversary of Google Stadia, purchases of Cyberpunk 2077 now come with a free copy of Stadia Premiere Edition. Premiere Edition gives players access to Google's game streaming service, as well as a controller and a Chromecast Ultra attachment that will allow players to stream their games directly to their TV. Free copies of Premiere Edition have already been shipped to YouTube Premium members, so this new deal isn't too out of line.
If Google wanted to push Stadia, it sure picked the right game. Cyberpunk 2077 has been one of the most desperately anticipated games on the modern market for years now. CD Projekt's glorious vision of a sprawling open world, a detail-oriented character creator, and a gripping story of dystopian crime has been tantalizing video game fans for a long time, but, to the agony of many, the game has suffered repeated delays. The most recent delay pushed the game back to December 10th, and took everyone by surprise, including, apparently, the developers working on the game.
But there's at least one company who seems confident in the new release date, even though there are already rumors that the game will be delayed again. Google has revealed that anyone who preorders a copy of Cyberpunk 2077 or buys it before December 18th will be eligible for a free Premiere Edition of Google Stadia. Unsurprisingly, only preorders of the Stadia version of the game will be eligible for this deal. But anyone who buys the game on this platform can enjoy $100 worth of benefits from the Premiere Edition, even if they preordered the game before this deal was announced.
It's certainly a generous deal, and an apropos way to ring in the one year anniversary of the streaming service. It's also not without an air of desperation. Many in the gaming world consider Stadia a failure; its launch was gutted by technical issues, an unfair pricing scheme, a limited library, and restrictively high requirements for internet connections that the average player can't muster. Google has been fighting hard to redeem its product ever since, and as part of the first anniversary celebrations it's touting some of the changes its made. The platform has seen 100+ new features and improvements since launch, and a steadily growing catalog of new titles. But for many players, it's just too little too late.
In spite of all the delays, anticipation for Cyberpunk 2077 is still high. Most fans will probably be buying the new game on PC or a conventional console, or springing for the next-gen version to push their new hardware to the limit. It's doubtful that the majority of gamers will be procuring the game for streaming on Google Stadia. But those happy few are in for a pretty substantial bonus if they do.
Source: Google Stadia