Google Stadia's in-house game development team was founded to attract players and developers to the platform, but the company now shifted the focus elsewhere.
It is quite unfortunate that the studio will be disbanded without actually achieving much. Google staffed the studio with some renowned names, and they even brought Ubisoft and EA veteran Jade Raymond to steer the ship, but her task was ultimately short-lived.
Writing in the official blog, vice president of Stadia Phil Harrison said, "Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially. 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."
He revealed that Raymond has left Google and wished her well, pointing out that most of the team will move on to new roles.
Google's decision probably makes sense from a business standpoint, and even though Harrison was cheering for Stadia exclusives at the time, the brunt of their business is likely to come from third-party titles. Which is where they set their sights, by the way.
"We see an important opportunity to work with partners seeking a gaming solution all built on Stadia’s advanced technical infrastructure and platform tools. We believe this is the best path to building Stadia into a long-term, sustainable business that helps grow the industry", Harrison wrote.
Google
This may even prove to be a positive thing for Stadia users, as the company refocuses their efforts on customers, which is never an unwise decision.
