Stadia loses its own game development studios

Earlier this week, Google announced on its blog that it is ceasing to develop its own games for its Stadia gaming platform. According to the statement, the company's studios in Montreal and Los Angeles are shutting down and developer Jade Raymond, who was chosen to run the games division, is leaving the company. But fortunately, despite the bad news, Stadia VP Phil Harrison says that Google will continue to invest in its game streaming service.

Phil says:

"Creating the best games from scratch takes many years and a significant investment, and the cost is rising exponentially. Given our focus on building on Stadia's proven technology, as well as deepening our commercial partnerships, we've decided that we will no longer invest in bringing exclusive content from our SG&E [Stadia Games and Entertainment] in-house development team, in addition to any planned short-term games."

In 2019, Google opened its first Stadia studio in the city of Montreal, in addition to acquiring Journey to the Savage Planet developer Typhoon Studios. His second studio was created in March 2020 in Los Angeles.

What will happen from now on with Stadia

According to Phil, the people who worked at his game development studios will be reassigned to other roles at the company and Google will help find them. According to Phil, Google currently thinks that working with game developers and publishers is "the best way to make Stadia a sustainable business for the long term." In November 2020, Stadia Game Director Jack Buser reported that there were already 400 titles in the works to come to the streaming service.

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