Today is the second Google Stadia Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) event, and a wide variety of our most pressing questions are being answered by the Stadia team. Among those, we now know the limitations of the special name that Stadia Founders can claim, along with the process of how to change them later.
One of the key benefits of pre-ordering the Stadia Founders Edition is being able to claim a Founders name, which is a unique username that will not have numbers appended to it by Google. For example, there can be infinite number of non-Founders with the display name “John,” each one with a different number tacked on like “John#117” or “John#202”, but there can only be one person with “John” as their Founder name.
Google Stadia is now less than a week from its launch on November 19, and those who preordered the Stadia Founders Edition before it sold out are stewing on what name they should claim. However, there’s been some pieces of the puzzle missing, as Google hadn’t shared how long a Stadia Founders name can be and what characters can be in it.
During the second Stadia AMA, a questioner asked what the minimum and maximum length is for a Stadia Founders name. The Stadia team’s Beri Lee explained that a Founders name must be between three and 15 characters long, and that those characters must be “letters or numbers.”
This firmly rules out spaces, symbols and special characters, though we’re not yet sure if “letters” simply means the 26 letters of the English alphabet, or if things like accented letters will be acceptable.
Should you later decide that maybe “RickAstley” isn’t the name you actually want to use on Google Stadia, thankfully you won’t be permanently locked in to your naming decision. According to another response from Lee, Founders will be able to freely change their names without having numbers appended. Of course, your new name will fall under the same limitations, meaning it must be between three and 15 alphanumeric characters and not currently claimed by another Founder.
Critically, however, changing your Founder name will not be possible in the app. Instead, you’ll be required to contact Google Support and request to have your name changed that way. This is, of course, inconvenient, but it’s better than not having any options.
More from the Stadia Reddit AMA:
- Google ‘aiming to release’ new Stadia features weekly, including achievements
- A Google Stadia team member will personally deliver a Founder’s kit on launch day
- [Update: Live] Google Stadia hosting Reddit AMA before launch
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