Take-Two was also paid “tens of millions of dollars” for Red Dead Redemption 2 and NBA 2K
A new report has provided more insight into the key figures that Google was pouring in to acquire third-party content for its Stadia streaming service.
Bloomberg spoke to anonymous sources close to the deals, who say Google spent “tens of millions of dollars” on major publishers such as Ubisoft and Take-Two to bring some of their biggest games to Stadia.
The author of the report, Jason Schreier, offered more context via Twitter, clarifying that this is tens of millions of dollars per port.
In another tweet, Schreier suggested that Google paid “$ 20 million to Ubisoft to port Assassin ‘s Creed and The Division.”
He said Take-Two Interactive, which had Red Dead Redemption 2 and NBA 2K20 available on Stadia at launch also “racked it in.”
The report follows the recent news of the closure of Google Stadia Games and Entertainment, the studio responsible for making exclusive titles that showed off the full potential and promising features of the streaming service.
While Stadia continues, Google also aims to offer the tech to other game publishers.
We discussed the impact of the closure for Stadia on a recent episode of The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast, as well as a review of the marketing surrounding its original announcement and suggested how Google could have positioned Stadia better from the start.
Last week, news surfaced that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Google, Bungie and id Software over the unfulfilled promises surrounding Stadia and its games.