Google Stadia is hoping the future of its console will come from game developers outside of the company. Google announced on Monday that it would shut down its in-house game studio, instead hoping other game developers continue to support the platform and use its technology to continue supporting the streaming platform in the future.
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. With the increased focus on using our technology platform for industry partners, Jade Raymond has decided to leave Google to pursue other opportunities. We greatly appreciate Jade’s contribution to Stadia and wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors. Over the coming months, most of the SG&E team will be moving on to new roles. We’re committed to working with this talented team to find new roles and support them.
The movie is tough news for the future of Stadia itself, though Google assured gamers in the statement that it will work with other companies to bring titles to Stadia and continue to support the streaming console, which needs a $9.99 montly subscription to use. It touted titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and others as successes on Stadia, which uses Google’s cloud services to run games without requiring a true in-home console to play.
Still, it’s huge news in the gaming industry because of the level of talent that was lured away from other established game developers to create the in-house Stadia team.
The thing about Stadia's internal studios is, they poached *exceptional* talent from other places and made acquisitions with strong potential. They then tasked them to establish new teams and make AAA games, which takes around 3-4 years at best.
What did they expect would happen
— Imran Khan (@imranzomg) February 1, 2021
Those developers will now either move to other non-gaming Google projects or look for work elsewhere.
1) While some might stay at Google I imagine most of them will leave because they want to make (and have experience making) video games, not Gmail features; 2) Yup many of them will find new game dev jobs, but will they have to move across the world? https://t.co/9sncb68NzL
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 1, 2021
The news also comes on the heels of a Jason Schreier report in Bloomberg about the struggles Amazon Game Studios has had in making games of its own, another example of an established tech giant struggling to tackle video games with consistent success.