After about a year and a half since its launch, Google has announced its plans for refocusing Stadia, their game streaming service, as just that and will no longer be developing games internally. To that end, Google is shutting down Stadia Games & Entertainment. Alongside the shutdown and shift in direction, Jade Raymond, the Head of SG&E, overlooking all of the studios working on games for Stadia, has left the company.
“We launched Stadia with the goal of making your favorite games instantly available wherever you want to play them. With the recent successful launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia, gameplay on all types of devices, including iOS, growing our slate of YouTube integrations and our global expansions, it’s clear that Stadia’s technology has been proven and works at scale,” Phil Harrison, Vice President and GM, Google Stadia said. “Having games streamed to any screen is the future of this industry, and we’ll continue to invest in Stadia and its underlying platform to provide the best cloud gaming experience for our partners and the gaming community. This has been the vision of Stadia since the beginning.” In 2021, Google Stadia will focus to help game developers and publishers take advantage of its platform technology and deliver games directly to their players. Stadia believes that the best path for long-term sustainable business that helps grow the industry is to work with partners seeking a gaming solution all built on Stadia’s advanced technical infrastructure and platform tools.
Talking about the decision to shut down SG&E, 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.
The shutdown of SG&E affects both the Los Angeles and Montreal game studios that are part of the banner. The closure will affect 150 developers but Google will help them transition to new roles. “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,” Harrison said.
If you are a current or future Stadia gamer, you’ll be able to continue playing your games on Stadia and Stadia Pro.