Google Stadia, the end-2019 streaming platform that promised to transform games by allowing users to stream games without the need for a powerful PC or token, changes course, gets out of the game making industry and now brings its platform directly to game publishers. along with offering Stadia Pro to the public.
The company announcing the news today, ged Kotaku they started hearing rumors from sources near Stadia last week that Google’s service was making a big difference. One gaming industry source said Kotaku that Google was postponing a number of projects, basically any slate games for release beyond the 2021 special window, although they believed games would still be close to release. Today there is some clarification.
Google will close its two game studios, located in Montreal and Los Angeles. None of them had released games yet. That closure will affect about 150 developers, said one source familiar with Stadia ‘s activity. The company says it will try to find new jobs at those developers at Google.
Jade Raymond, the former producer who helped build assassin’s Creed for Ubisoft and moved to EA several years ago before leaving to create a game run at Stadia, leaving the company, according to Google.
Google will continue to operate the Stadia game service and its $ 10 monthly Stadia Pro service. It is not clear how many games, if any, will still come to the service, although the company has stated that they can still sign new games and bring more releases from third parties. to the stage. Yet he will look to many as pulling down the plan to run Stadia as a bona fide competitor to token platforms.
G / O Media may receive a commission
The company plans to start offering its Stadia tech to publishers, opening up the possibility of Stadia becoming a streaming technology for other video game companies. Google Stadia chief operating officer Phil Harrison, chief console officer, will focus on pursuing these new partnerships.
“W.He sees an important opportunity to work with partners looking for an all-in-one game solution built on Stadia’s advanced technical infrastructure and platform tools, ”Harrison wrote in a blog post today. “We believe this is the best way to build Stadia into a long-term sustainable business that will help grow the business. ”
Google Stadia initially offered in a $ 129 Founder Edition package, which included a standard controller, Chromecast Ultra (used to stream games from Google servers to TV), and three months of Stadia Pro, a membership service that provided access to specific games.
Google promote some exciting features, including the ability to let players control a live Stadia game on the fly and share games, but many they were not available at launch and remained in probationary stages.
Perhaps the best moments in service were when its third-party ports showed the strength of the cloud gaming model, in which a game can run well on just about any device with a screen and a strong internet connection. web. Ubisoft Games as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey run well on Stadia. Destiny 2Stadia support allowed players of that game to drop in for extra maids or a question from their phone or laptop when they were far from their regular gaming gear. When Cyberpunk 2077 sweating everything else in December, he was running well on Stadia.
However, without offering an all-you-can-play service or offering exclusive kill games, it was difficult for Stadia to get its foundation. Meanwhile, Microsoft upgraded its xCloud cloud gaming service as part of its Ultimate Game Pass package, and Stadia became less and less of a sort for the kind of hardware gamer that can promotion for new play service.
Google was apparently built for the future with the creation of first-party studios and a leadership team in which studio leaders and creative directors were capable, but those efforts were not enough to stop what happened to many people when they heard about this Google campaign: that was to lose internal support before it had enough time to fulfill its potential.
Stadia is not well done. The tech Stadia could still succeed. According to many accounts, Stadia runs games well. But as a player, Google seems to be packed in. One source familiar with the first-party activity at Stadia said it was another tech giant widely published failure to create video games: “Google was a terrible place to make games. Think Amazon, but without enough resources. ”