You'll soon be able to browse the Stadia store without logging in

And even try some free demos

Today is the Google for Games Developer Summit, so there's some fresh gaming news to dig into (like the Steam alpha for Chrome OS reveal), and this includes Stadia. Up until this point, a Stadia account is needed to test the majority of games on the Stadia store. Sure, there have been a few free weekends and other promotions excluded from the need to use a credit card to create an account, but as you can imagine, this roadblock has been an issue for many since Stadia's inception. Well, soon enough, an account won't be required to peruse the Stadia store or test its games, so says Caren Yapp (Strategic Business Development) during the Stadia keynote at the tail end of the Google for Games Developer Summit, which is indeed excellent news.

Above, you can watch the entire Google for Games Developer Summit, but it's lengthy, clocking in at over an hour, so if you're looking for today's pertinent Stadia news, you'll want to jump to the last section at the 1:04:30 mark. This is where Caren Yapp heads the Stadia keynote, delving into the new push for game discoverability. In the coming weeks, interested parties will no longer need a Stadia account to browse the Stadia store, opening up the store to everyone, ideally to view which games make up the 200+ Stadia library (with 100 more coming this year).

Better yet, Click to Play Trials are also opening up to more players as this feature will no longer require an account either. Whether or not a game will offer such a trial will be up to the developer. However, Google's numbers confirm players are more engaged when utilizing a Click to Play Trial, so there's a good chance developers will be keen to add such a feature to their Stadia games.

Click to Play Trials debuted last year during a pilot phase with Hello Engineer, Control, Riders Republic, and The Jackbox Party Pack 8. Today, the feature has expanded with Risk of Rain 2 (an excellent roguelike, you should have) give it a try) and Animal Royale.

Ideally, the move to an open store that does not require an account to browse will allow Stadia games to show up in Google Search results, making it easier to find them (remember, this is all about discovery). A redesigned storefront is also incoming, which will highlight sales better while also leaning into the new focus on Click to Play Trials.

All in all, it's great to hear that accounts will no longer exist as a roadblock to browsing the Stadia store, as it's been a sticking point for a while. Now that the account issue will soon be remedied, the focus on Click to Play Trials that also won't require an account is easily looking to be one of Stadia's best features. Of course, all of this also plays into Google's plans to offer a white-label service, where developers can not only spin up their own cloud versions of their games, but the demos for them. So it's certainly interesting times for Stadia, as the tech is as sound as ever, and the incremental improvements announced today should help grow the platform's consumer side as well as the burgeoning business-to-business white-label side.

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