Google Stadia is closing its internal studios and Jade Raymond is leaving
Google announced today that it is closing its internal Stadia game development studios and shifting its focus to the further development of Stadia's streaming platform and technology instead. Assassin's Creed co-creator Jade Raymond, who joined Google in 2019 to head up its development operations, is leaving the company as a result of the change.
"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," Stadia boss Phil Harrison said in a blog post. "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."
The Stadia platform itself will continue to operate as it has, with both a free basic service and subscription-based Stadia Pro offering, but the focus going forward will be on helping external developers and publishers take advantage of the technology, which Harrison said "is the best path to building Stadia into a long-term, sustainable business that helps grow the industry."
"We’re committed to the future of cloud gaming, and will continue to do our part to drive this industry forward," he wrote. "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."
According to Kotaku, which broke the news of the closure before it was officially announced, the closure will affect roughly 150 developers. Google did not reveal details about which, if any, in-development projects will be halted by the shutdown.