Google still has big plans for the Stadia gaming platform and finally wants to put it on a steep growth path, which could actually work with the numerous announcements these days. It has now been announced that the Stadia Store will soon be open to all users and will no longer be closed to “visitors”. Even without an account, you can browse the store and even gamble in the future.
So far, Google has not succeeded in establishing Stadia in the masses, although they undoubtedly have a mass-market product. One of the reasons for this could be that the gaming platform has not been very “hospitable” so far and has practically completely locked out users without an account. The fact that you can’t gamble without a Stadia account is absolutely understandable and can hardly be changed in the long term. But the fact that you can’t even stroll through the store and check out the available games makes it difficult.
This has finally been noticed by Google and the store will soon be open to all users. Even without a user account and even without a Google account, it should be possible to access the full extent of the store and browse through the available titles. One can search games, read descriptions, watch the trailer and do everything that the registered users can do except gamble and buy games. But even that should be possible with the new demos, some of which can be started without registration.
This makes at least a test game as easy as opening a YouTube video. Exactly as Google promised for Stadia back in spring 2019. The advantage of opening the store is that Stadia and the games can show up in Google web search and other places. Of course, this also includes advertisements that the developers or Google can place themselves.
In the coming weeks, anyone will be able to access and search the full Stadia store and its 200+ games – without needing to create or sign in to a Stadia account. Players will be able to find Stadia games through Google Search and explore Stadia’s library of entirely free games or demos to try, the 50+ games in Stadia Pro, publisher sales, or the 100+ games launching on Stadia this year.
It is hard to understand why this has not been the case so far. If you’re addressing the large crowd, then you shouldn’t lock them out in front of the door. Shop windows are an important marketing tool, as every retailer knows. After all, the Google Play Store, the Chrome Web Store and most of the competition’s stores can also be accessed without a user account. It is also an important aspect that curious users can see the selection of over 200 games as well as the 52 free titles.
Quite a few might have in mind that Stadia started with a modest selection of 18 titles. If you don’t deal with the topic, you won’t notice much of Stadia’s growth and should therefore have little leisure to register. Especially since there were a few entry hurdles when the platform was launched in November 2019.