In less than 2 years’ time, Google has finally pulled the plug on Stadia’s only game development studio — Stadia Games and Entertainment (SG&E) to help it focus on the cloud-based service and its growing partnerships.
In a blogpost yesterday, announced that it’s “shutting down” Stadia game studios and is ending investment in SG&E’s exclusive titles outside of “near-term planned” projects. The company reiterates that it is determined to keep Stadia going, and some hard choices about the games and studios it supports were needed. The shutdown and change in focus at Stadia will help shape the service into a “long-term, sustainable business”.
Phil Harrison, General manager and Vice President at Google Stadia said:
CREATING BEST-IN-CLASS GAMES FROM THE GROUND UP TAKES MANY YEARS AND SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT, AND THE COST IS GOING UP EXPONENTIALLY. GIVEN OUR FOCUS ON BUILDING ON THE PROVEN TECHNOLOGY OF STADIA AS WELL AS DEEPENING OUR BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS, WE’VE DECIDED THAT WE WILL NOT BE INVESTING FURTHER IN BRINGING EXCLUSIVE CONTENT FROM OUR INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT TEAM SG&E, BEYOND ANY NEAR-TERM PLANNED GAMES.
SG&E lead and Assassin’s Creed fame developer Jade Raymond will be leaving Google to pursue other opportunities. While most of the SG&E team members will be moving on to new roles within the company.
Phil also assured current and future subscribers of Stadia that the game service will carry on as normal, and subscribers will get to see more games added over time. This overhaul will help Google to expand its catalog of third-party titles rather than Google’s own.
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