Google Stadia Launches For Founder's Edition Buyers On Nov. 19

Our video game streaming future is a little more than a month away, as earlier today, we got an official launch date for Google Stadia. Well, an official launch date for those who purchased the Founder's Edition, anyway.

Those who dropped $129 the Google Stadia Founder's Edition package will get access to the service on Nov. 19, 2019. And to start, Stadia Pro players will be able to play on their TVs (with the Founder's Edition controller and Chromecast Ultra), as well as on desktops and laptops.

On the mobile side of things, however, it all gets a little bit trickier. For smartphones, Google Stadia is only supporting the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a lines at launch. And if you want to play on a tablet, you'll have to ensure it's one that runs Chrome OS. If you use any other kind of Android smartphone, you're out of luck. If you have an iPhone, forget about it (at launch, anyway). If you have an Android tablet, you're shut out. And if you own an iPad... nope.

We get that the Founder's Edition of Google Stadia is meant to be a sort of paid early access. That said, it still seems extremely restrictive, especially in how it locks out a whole bunch of Google's own customers. People with a Google Pixel 2 can't use Stadia Pro at launch? There isn't a single Android tablet that'll work in November? Crazy.

At any rate, we at least know when Google Stadia will be coming online, and that's important for a number of reasons. We now know when Destiny 2 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are coming to Stadia, for instance (since they're both doing so when it launches). And we finally know when we'll get to see the service in action, in the wild, outside of controlled environments. Will it perform as admirably as Project Stream did? In one month and a few days, we'll find out.