Google is moving away from its plans to build its own games for Stadia, halting project development and closing its studios in Montreal and Los Angeles.
Just over a year after the launch of the Stadia platform, the Google is starting to limit its activities to games. The company is closing them down two game development studio and cancels her project.
The Stadia is a streaming platform which is cloud-based and launched on November 19, 2019. Google launched the Stadia Games and Entertainment division in March of the same year, assigning its direction to former Assassin's Creed game producer Jade Raymond.
Raymond is now leaving Google. At the same time, the closure of the Montreal and Los Angeles studios will affect 150 developers. Google has said it will try to find new roles for these employees.
Google will continue to operate Stadia as a gaming service, for Stadia Pro, at a price of $ 10 per month.
Great Companies τεχνολογίας, όπως η Google και η Amazon, έχουν κάνει τα τελευταία χρόνια αρκετά φιλόδοξες προσπάθειες για να μπουν στην ανάπτυξη παιχνιδιών, αλλά με ελάχιστο ή μηδενικό αποτέλεσμα. Τίποτα τουλάχιστον που να άξιζε την προσπάθεια και την επένδυση. Η Amazon κυκλοφόρησε το online Crucible shooter in May. It stopped growing in October. Amazon's MMO New World will be released this year.
Stadia is probably a victim of bad timing and poor planning. The launch of Stadia in 2019 became a difficult time, as that year the Switch entered the market strongly. Also quite a few players περίμεναν υπομονετικά για τις κυκλοφορίες των PlayStation 5 και Xbox Series X / S. Και, επιπλέον, υπάρχει ανταγωνισμός εντός του ίδιου του χώρου cloud-streaming, ο οποίος αναθερμάνθηκε όταν η Microsoft έκανε την υπηρεσία xCloud, μέρος του πακέτου Game Pass Ultimate.
Google certainly has the money to take risks with companies like gaming, but knowing that it does not depend on Stadia's success to stay profitable, the company is able to abandon the business very quickly and easily (or reduce it).
