Big Decision by Google – Stadia Games and Entertainment division to shut down: Google is shutting down its in-house game studio division Stadia Games & Entertainment (SG&E) as it plans to help third-party game developers and publishers through its Stadia tech platform. SG&E head Jade Raymond is leaving the company while most of the SG&E team will be moving on to new roles.
“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. 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,” said Google Stadia Vice President and GM Phil Harrison.
Harrison said that the company is expanding its efforts to help game developers and publishers take advantage of their platform technology and deliver games directly to their players. “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.”
He also noted that 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.”
On Jade Raymond’s departure, he said, “With the increased focus on using our technology platform for industry partners, Jade Raymond has decided to leave Google to pursue other opportunities. We greatly appreciate Jade’s contribution to Stadia and wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors. 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.”
All current and future Stadia gamers can continue playing all your games on Stadia and Stadia Pro. “We’ll continue to bring new titles from third parties to the platform. We’re committed to the future of cloud gaming, and will continue to do our part to drive this industry forward. Our goal remains focused on creating the best possible platform for gamers and technology for our partners, bringing these experiences to life for people everywhere.”