Google will no longer produce exclusive content as it has decided to close its first-party Stadia development studios.
As detailed in a blog post by Google Stadia vice president and GM Phil Harrison, the company instead wants to focus on the development of its streaming platform as its tech has been proven to work.
Therefore, the development of games is no longer a priority for Stadia. Rather, third-party games are its future, the recent release of Cyberpunk 2077 is one such example of a successful launch on the platform.
“Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially,” wrote Harrison
“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.”
Farewell
Given the new direction in which Google Stadia is heading, Stadia Games and Entertainment head Jade Raymond has decided to leave the company.
“With the increased focus on using our technology platform for industry partners, Jade Raymond has decided to leave Google to pursue other opportunities,” Harrison wrote.
“We greatly appreciate Jade’s contribution to Stadia and wish her the best of luck in her future endeavours. 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.”
Stadia was first launched in November 2019. Within days, its mobile app had been downloaded 175,000 times. However, that number reached one million installs five months later.
In December 2020, the streaming platform was rolled out in eight countries across Europe – Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland.
