Well, I didn’t expect to find this news. According to The Keyword, Stadia is “shutting down” its internal game development studios, which it calls “Stadia Games & Entertainment”, in order to focus on its partnerships with third parties. Before we move on, it’s important to note that Stadia himself is alive and well and that Stadia Games & Entertainment (SG&E) is just Google’s initial internal effort to create games for its own platform.
While it is difficult to determine which games were developed by the SG&E team, they are as follows: None. That’s right, we didn’t see any titles leave Google in the two years that their studios were operational because, well, “Creating the best games from scratch takes many years and a significant investment, and the cost is rising exponentially”.
They did, however, publish several titles on behalf of other developers. GYLT, Orcs Must Die! 3, Submerged: Hidden Depths and Outcasters made their way to the platform with the help of Google, but none of them, except the Outcasters, seem to have had much enthusiasm around them. Google’s decision is understandable and even makes sense when you think about how much time and effort they’ve invested in building Stadia’s infrastructure.
Stadia vice president and general manager Phil Harrison said that moving forward, the company would redirect its efforts to help game developers take advantage of its technology and deliver games directly to players. To this end, they will continue to offer hardware development, technical assistance and even financing through the Stadia Maker program. All games they planned to develop in person after 2021 have been canceled, and most of the team is being shuffled to get new roles in other Google departments. With all of that covered, what exactly does this mean for Stadia players? Is it the end yet? Do not.
“We see an important opportunity to work with partners who are looking for a game solution built entirely on Stadia’s advanced technical infrastructure and platform tools,” Harrison wrote in a blog post today. “We believe that this is the best way to transform Stadia into a long-term sustainable business that helps to expand the industry.”
Phil Harrison
With more than 400 games coming from third parties in the coming years – something that was announced recently, probably with today’s news in mind – the Stadia team has big plans for the future, and you can continue to buy and play as if it were another Tuesday. In fact, “GraceFromGoogle” took the time to reiterate that on Reddit. As SG&E has done practically nothing for Stadia from the consumer’s point of view, nothing changes.
Personally, I don’t believe that the end is near to Stadia as a platform and, unlike ‘Killed by Google’, I think the “Google Cemetery” is a myth. Any and all innovation created by Google is always directed to the next venture. What I am saying is that the company is basically a great product in constant evolution, consisting of many moving parts and, although this approach is not great for end users in the short term, it is something that I accepted to be better in the long term. Regardless, they have stated several times that they intend to stay with Stadia for a long time and I have to believe that they continue to reiterate that, despite seeing SG&E internally decay from the beginning.
Over the past year, media consumption has reached a historic peak. We’re all still stuck in our homes, and Stadia had a chance to really take advantage of that. Whether you believe that they did everything they could to make the most of that time, closing their own in-house studios seems like a strategic move. One thing is for sure – it is definitely not looking good.
Here’s my take – Google has a habit of trying to do things on its own, only to realize that, despite its weight in the market, it should leave some things to professionals who have over a hundred years of experience and, instead, , should focus on your strength – partnerships and support. I think the opportunity to mature comes in the form of not trying to keep a slice of each pie if they don’t think they can do it in the long run. The point is, I don’t know if they really believed they could have developed exclusive titles to the finish line or if they just wanted to play with the idea. If it is the latter, they should keep in mind how it affects their public image and plan accordingly for future efforts.
Exclusive titles are often guaranteed for one platform in order to sell more hardware consoles and bring in new, dedicated players, but if Stadia doesn’t have exclusives and you can play all your games on other platforms, you’ll have to decide for yourself whether you’re loyal to Google for games or its technology. Personally, I am of the opinion that their native cloud resources may be unique enough that I want to see how the gaming landscape is transformed by them – regardless of whether or not Google creates the games that use them.
If you are no longer making your own titles, other developers may lose confidence in Google’s vision and drop out. I think what will happen, however, is that they can approach all potential developers, reassure them of their vision to support them and turn that into a victory. I can’t say how much I believe they are playing very well here. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t rush, nor feed the trolls that are already appearing on social media and on the news proclaiming that “Stadia is dead!”
Stadia is here to stay and based on its desire to “help game developers and publishers to take advantage of its platform technology and deliver games directly to players”, I wonder if he might have plans to offer his infrastructure outside Stadia.com as part of that plan. Imagine buying a game on the Ubisoft or Square Enix website, for example, and clicking the ‘Play’ button right there to start it without leaving that page! The text here may be implying that Google has plans to allow publishers and developers to take advantage of its technology directly, but we will have to wait and see how it goes. In the meantime, enjoy your Stadia Pro titles for February!
