Ultimately, Stadia Games and Entertainment teams got the software and people needed to create momentum with Stadia game prototypes. The allure of a Google-sized salary and an exit from the creaking hamster wheel was enough to draw a critical mass of developers to Stadia Games and Entertainment. Artists, producers, audio experts and programmers were approached with the promise of creating unique games for revolutionary software – and, many believed, without the threat of being fired as the sword of Damocles, as is the case. often the case with traditional game companies. Teams were exploring what Google games might look like, how best to harness the power of Google’s massive data centers, and demonstrate cloud gaming. Then Covid-19 struck.
In April 2020 – a month after the Los Angeles studio was announced – Google implemented a hiring freeze. “Now is the time to slow down the hiring pace significantly,” Pichai said in an internal post, “while maintaining momentum in a small number of strategic areas where users and businesses depend on Google for continued support and where our growth is critical. to their success. ”According to four sources, gaming was not one of those ‘strategic areas’.
“If the company was okay to give us a hiring freeze, they were also good at hurting our ability to build content,” says a source. “The studio was not yet fully formed and ready to produce games. That slowed down and was a statement. We interpreted it as Google’s lack of commitment to content creation. “
Google is not the first tech giant to encounter these difficulties. Amazon followed a similar arc. In 2020, WIRED explored the tremendous challenges Jeff Bezos’ empire faced in producing first-party games at his Amazon Game Studios. Like Google, Amazon has hired the best of the best: trusted developers such as Far Cry 2‘s Clint Hocking, System shock 2‘s Ian Vogel, EverQuestJohn Smedley, ed PortalKim Swift, many of whom raved about the technology giant’s stability and relatively higher salary. According to various sources, Amazon’s goal was to create a billion-dollar franchise that would help promote the company’s cloud technology, its own game engine, and the Twitch streaming service.
The approach, sources say, was hubrist. Amazon wanted to “win at games” by developing several AAA games at the same time, despite its nonexistent industry track record. Mike Frazzini, Head of Amazon Game Studios, has no previous professional experience in games. High expectations coupled with Amazon idiosyncrasies – for example, an obsession with internal software and a fixation on measuring success with data – have led to failure after failure. Amazon has canceled at least three of its games: Project Nova, Break away, and Melting pot, the latter of which was canceled just five months after its release.
AAA game development can cost between $ 100 million and $ 200 million. Successes like that of Blizzard Overwatch come from the ashes of failures like the company’s demolished massively multiplayer online role-playing game TitanProduct design at major technology companies may not always be easy, but game design is a labyrinth that requires a lot of resources and money.
“I think it’s a lack of understanding of the process,” said a source working at Stadia. “It seemed there were people at the board level who didn’t quite understand how to navigate a space that is highly creative and interdisciplinary.”
During the Google hiring freeze, game developers felt stymied in achieving their goals. Prototypes were developed without full resources; the studios were not operating at full capacity. When it came time to assess performance, according to three sources, Google rated game developers against benchmarks created for UX or visual designers. There is no number associated with ‘fun-to-play’ or a process-based workflow to generate creativity. Experienced game developers lobbied for their work culture as much as possible. Over time, Google seemed to soften. Developers were given the tools they needed, the right review processes. But not the workforce. The frustration continued.