Google is closing its internal game development division Stadia, the company announced today, while shifting Stadia’s focus to being a home for streaming games from existing developers, rather than developing its own games for the service.
“Creating the best games from scratch takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is rising exponentially,” says a blog post by Phil Harrison, vice president of Google and general manager of Stadia. “Given our focus on developing Stadia’s proven technology, as well as deepening our business partnerships, we have decided that we will no longer invest in bringing exclusive content from our internal SG&E development team, in addition to any games planned in the short term. “
As part of this change, the company is closing its game studios in Los Angeles and Montreal, both under the brand name Stadia Games and Entertainment. Google says that “most of SG&E [Stadia Games and Entertainment] the team will move on to new roles, ”but Jade Raymond – the industry veteran at Ubisoft and EA who led Stadia’s studio teams – will leave the company entirely.
Stadia itself, along with the $ 9.99 Stadia Pro subscription service, will continue to exist in the future, and Google may continue to try to secure exclusive (or timed) third-party titles to offer through its subscription. Any “almost planned” game will still be released on Stadia as well.
But the closure of Stadia’s internal studios represents a serious blow to Google’s gaming ambitions. In addition to the mere technical aspects of the streaming service itself, the fact that Google was willing to invest in several primary studios was one of the most significant parts of Stadia’s original vision.
The fact that Google was creating games for the fledgling streaming service – titles that, in theory, would take advantage of its exclusive cloud technology – marked how serious Google was investing in Stadia. It was also a sign that the company aspired one day to launch exclusive products that could offer attractive competition to companies such as Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, all of which rely heavily on their own in-house studios to create important exclusive games to get players to their services .
The fact that Stadia will no longer be in the game creation market makes sense: developing an AAA title is an incredibly expensive undertaking. But it also means that the future of Stadia is likely to be relegated to just another option, where you can play the same games you already play on a PS5, Xbox Series X or PC.