Google Shutting Down Stadia's In-House Game Development Studio

[ParadiseLost]

Google is shutting down its in-house Stadia game development studios

Studio lead Jade Raymond will be departing Google.

www.theverge.com

Google has decided to shut down its in-house game development studio. From now on, Google Stadia will only sell third party titles.

Honestly, I think this is a pretty major warning sign. If Stadia was doing awesome, I doubt Google would be doing this.

Google has a history of shutting down unsuccessful ventures relatively quickly.

I probably would not have trusted Stadia with my money before this news. Now I definitely wouldn't trust them.

 

[Undertone]

Closing a studio without shipping a single title? Absolutely absurd!

As for Stadia in general, hype will get you nowhere if you don't focus on the user experience. I had never heard of nVidia's GeForce NOW service before this past holiday season, but apparently it works way better than Stadia.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Next up on Stadia: Adventure, explore, and compete in 9 games coming soon

We’re thrilled to continue bringing great games from some of the best developers for our players to experience within the Stadia store. Over the next few weeks and months, players can expect to see everything from action-filled RPGs to competitive co-op titles and nimble platformers. That...

community.stadia.com

Looks like they're going to make a push at trying to convince people Stadia isn't dead even if they themselves won't be making games for it.

 

[Bear Ribs]

As I mentioned in another thread, Google managed to tick off the creator of Terraria enough that he canceled letting said game go onto Stadia so they've lost one major one.

 

[ParadiseLost]

Next up on Stadia: Adventure, explore, and compete in 9 games coming soon

We’re thrilled to continue bringing great games from some of the best developers for our players to experience within the Stadia store. Over the next few weeks and months, players can expect to see everything from action-filled RPGs to competitive co-op titles and nimble platformers. That...

community.stadia.com

Looks like they're going to make a push at trying to convince people Stadia isn't dead even if they themselves won't be making games for it.

That's not exactly a great line up.

They were offering a Stadia Controller and Google Chromecast along with a month of Stadia Pro (easily a $100 value) with any purchase of Cyberpunk 2077.

I think that was kind of a last hurrah for Stadia. If trying to make the most hyped game of the year as accessible as possible and offering a huge bonus with the game didn't get more people to sign up, I don't think a line up that mediocre is going to do it.

 

[Whiskey Golf]

I was expecting this to happen. Google always wants things fast, and they don't have the patience to dig deep and get down and do the work, they always want fast results. Quite frankly it might have been better for them had they bought up Mihoyo and used Genshin Impact as Stadia's killer app. Collect your waifus wherever you go! Get 60 FPS control and a controller instead of 30 FPS on a touchscreen (quite frankly genshin is nigh-unplayable on a gaming phone, and literally will not even get to the loading screen on my A71, so I've been using PC to play Genshin).

This comes as no surprise. Google has no perserverance for anything, so every time Google talks about developing something I expect them to abandon it before it's done.

This is ignoring how Stadia simply just wasn't technically feasible yet. The infrastructure support just isn't there.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Apparently Google told their Stadia devs in a company announcement how great they were doing less then a week before firing them all.

Microsoft's Bethesda acquisition cited as one of the reasons Google Stadia killed internal studios - report

The last days of Google's game-making studios at Stadia may have been worse than we thought.

www.vg247.com

Also one of the talking heads stated Microsoft's purchase of Bethesda was apparently playing a factor in why Stadias in house game development was cancelled.

 

[Laskar]

Apparently Google told their Stadia devs in a company announcement how great they were doing less then a week before firing them all.

Microsoft's Bethesda acquisition cited as one of the reasons Google Stadia killed internal studios - report

The last days of Google's game-making studios at Stadia may have been worse than we thought.

www.vg247.com

Also one of the talking heads stated Microsoft's purchase of Bethesda was apparently playing a factor in why Stadias in house game development was cancelled.

That's, uh, entirely consistent with the way Google runs everything. Everything that Google does is hyped up as the next big thing even when its as mediocre as Google Hangouts, and ever dev team of every little project in the Alphabet constellation is told that they have the full support of the Google empire... right up until the project gets canned and the developers get shuffled off to other projects. I sure wouldn't work for them. If we're up shit creek without a paddle, I'd like my boss to be honest enough to tell me so I have time to plan my swim to shore.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Google is trying to assure consumers that Google Stadia is still alive and well despite the negative 2020 and 2021 headlines.

Given the mixed reception at launch, previous complaints around a lack of updates about the service, and even the fact that various witnesses in the ongoing Epic vs Apple trial can't seem to figure out whether Stadia is even still operating, it's all too easy to imagine the cloud gaming service's days might be numbered.

But developer marketing lead Nate Ahearn tells GamesIndustry.biz the project is "alive and well."

"We're well on our way to over 100 new games launching on Stadia in 2021, and we're continuing to make Stadia a great place to play games on devices you already own," he says. "I'd tell any non-believers to take notice of how we're continuing to put our words into action, as we grow the Stadia Makers program and partner with AAA studios like Capcom, EA, Square Enix, Ubisoft and others."

When pressed for more information, Ahearn said Google was "focused on delivering value for our partners and on behalf of our players."

Google says Stadia is "alive and well"

Google Stadia has been grabbing headlines in 2021 -- but perhaps not quite in the way the internet giant would like.Fir…

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[Robovski]

I never thought they could work around it's problems before, I certainly don't see a reason to get into this sinking ship now.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

*looks at her Valve Controller and Valve Steam Link*

Well, I'm rather glad I didn't buy into Stadia.

 

[ParadiseLost]

*looks at her Valve Controller and Valve Steam Link*

Well, I'm rather glad I didn't buy into Stadia.

To be fair, Valve doesn't sell their Controllers anymore because they didn't sell well.

 

[Robovski]

To be fair, Valve doesn't sell their Controllers anymore because they didn't sell well.

I got a set up for like 90% off and it's fine over a wired network connection but wasn't great over my wifi. It was a neat concept but i'm glad I never paid full price for it.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

I got a set up for like 90% off and it's fine over a wired network connection but wasn't great over my wifi. It was a neat concept but i'm glad I never paid full price for it.

Yeah, I got mine at that discount as well. At the time, I was living with roomies so it was a useful setup for locally streaming my PC to the TV in the family room, but I don't have much of a use for it now that I have a studio unit on my own. The actual Valve Controller remains a sturdy and well built device, though.