Stadia pre-orderers may not be able to play immediately on November 19 release

Players who purchased the Founder’s Edition or the later added Premiere Edition are not guaranteed to be able to play immediately on November 19th. According to Google, the delivery of the kits is in order of order and that can take up to two weeks.

Google has previously introduced a new Premiere Edition for the sold-out Founder’s Edition, prompting The Verge to question whether orderers of this version can also start playing immediately on the November 19 release date. That does not appear to be the case per se. The website assumed that purchasers of the Founder’s Edition would by definition have access to Google’s new game streaming service from this release date, but that is not automatically a fact either.

Google points in a response to an earlier blog post from last week, in which the company indicates that the Founder’s Editions “start arriving” on November 19. It also says that if you are one of the first gamers to place an order and have already received the Founder’s Edition, you can start playing on November 19th. Google also announced that both versions will be shipped by order date. People who have only recently purchased the Premiere Edition will probably have to be patient on November 19th. Google reports that both editions are expected to ship in the first two weeks after release. This could mean that late orderers may have to wait until early December.

With the release of Stadia, users will be able to play Red Dead Redemption 2, Destiny 2 and Mortal Kombat 11 among others. Games like Doom, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Borderlands 3 and Metro Exodus will be released on Stadia, but it’s unclear if these games will be playable right at launch. From next year, all kinds of other major titles will be coming to the platform, including Doom Eternal, Watch Dogs Legion and Cyberpunk 2077. The release on November 19 is the Stadia Pro version; it allows playing at 4k and 60fps, supports 5.1 sound and costs 10 euros per month. A free version will also be released next year, with resolution limited to 1080p and supporting only stereo sound. Stadia Pro subscribers get “about one free game per month,” Google previously said.