Google is shutting down its in-house Stadia game development division, the company announced today, as it refocuses Stadia on streaming games from existing developers rather than developing its own games for the service.
“It takes many years and significant investment to get the best games from scratch, and costs are increasing exponentially,” said a blog post by Phil Harrison, a vice president at Google and Stadia general manager. “Given our focus on building on Stadia’s proven technology and deepening our business partnerships, we have decided that we will not invest further in bringing exclusive content from our in-house development team SG&E beyond any upcoming games in the near term. “
As part of that change, the company is closing both the Los Angeles and Montreal game studios, both of which existed under the banner of Stadia Games and Entertainment. Google says that “most SG&E [Stadia Games and Entertainment] team will progress to new roles, ”but Jade Raymond – the Ubisoft and EA industry veteran who led the Stadia studio teams – will leave the company entirely.
Stadia itself, in addition to the $ 9.99 Stadia Pro subscription service, will continue in the future, and Google may continue to try to offer exclusive (or timed exclusive) third-party titles through its subscription. All ‘almost planned’ games will also be released on Stadia.
But the shuttering of Stadia’s own studios is a serious blow to Google’s gaming ambitions. Beyond the purely technical aspects of the streaming service itself, the fact that Google was willing to invest in multiple first-party studios was one of the most important parts of the original Stadia vision.
The fact that Google would make games for the fledgling streaming service – titles that would theoretically benefit from the unique cloud technology – indicated how seriously Google invested in Stadia. It was also a sign that the company was striving to one day introduce exclusives that could provide compelling 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 bring players to. to move. their services.
The fact that Stadia is no longer active in game making makes sense in a way: developing a AAA title is an incredibly expensive endeavor. But it also means that Stadia’s future will likely be relegated to just another option where you can play the same games you can already play on a PS5, Xbox Series X or PC.