Google Stadia finally launches on phones that aren’t Pixels

Google today revealed that, at long last, its Stadia gaming service would be expanding to phones outside its Pixel line. Indeed, Stadia will be available on a plethora of new devices from Razer, ASUS, and Samsung, starting February 20.

Starting February 20, you can play Stadia with even more phones. ASUS ROG Phone I & II, Razer Phone 1 & 2, and a variety of Samsung phones, including the Samsung S20 line, are all supported.

For the full list of compatible phones, check out our blog → https://t.co/1eUhssl649 pic.twitter.com/LoA6aiXF9V

— Stadia (@GoogleStadia) February 18, 2020

According to Google, Stadia arrives on the Razer Phone and the Razer Phone 2, the ASUS ROG Phone & the ASUS ROG Phone II, and the Samsung Galaxies S8, S8+, S8 Active, Note 8, S9, S9, Note 9, S10, S10E, S10+, Note 10, Note 10+, S20, S20+, S20 Ultra. More Galaxies than there are in heaven, basically.

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As stated, this will be the first time Stadia’s available on something besides a Google Pixel phone. You’ll still need to have Stadia subscription and a sturdy Wi-Fi connection in order to use it on your phone. This comes on the heels of the company announcing up to 120 games over the course of 2020. It’ll be a massive upgrade considering we’ve had only a handful of games — only one of which hasn’t been available on other stores for months if not years.

Stadia’s several months on the market have been rather quiet. Early adopters have their choice of a handful of games and a few devices — a dearth of options that some are salty about (here’s a Stadia subreddit users complaining about the exact number of days Stadia’s gone without an update). Even a quick skim of the app’s reviews on the Play Store shows users are losing patience waiting for the planned features. After all, we’re still supposed to have a free subscription tier, Google Assistant support, YouTube sharing, and at least a few exclusive games coming some time this year — a year we’re already almost two months into.

As the users on the Stadia subreddit have pointed out, it’s coming up on the time when Stadia’s early adopters will have to renew their subscriptions because their free trial period is coming to an end. And now we’ve got the likes of GeForce Now nipping at its heels, so I think it’s safe to say it’s about goddamned time we saw some movement. It’s far from the ubiquity the Stadia marketing seems to be promising, but we’ve all got to start somewhere, don’t we?