Remember, it was February 1, 2021, we were learning the closure of Stadia Games & Entertainment, the structure at Google which was in charge of developing exclusive titles for the Stadia platform, headed by Jade Raymond. A somewhat brutal – and above all unexpected – announcement which nevertheless demonstrated the Internet giant’s desire to change its strategy concerning its gaming vertical. Phil Harrison, the President of Stadia, had also splita long message on the official blog to explain this renunciation to invest more in this policy which is too long, and above all too expensive. As a result, 150 developers found themselves on the sidelines, some with the promise of being reclassified in other sectors of the group, while others simply risk dismissal. But it looks like things are not that simple and the back kitchen of this business is not as clean as it looks. Indeed, the American site Kotaku has just released an investigation, based on the anonymous testimony of several employees, who revealed unconventional methods.
According to the Kotaku paper, people who were affected by the closure of Stadia Games & Entertainment were told about this brutal decision just minutes before the official public announcement. Worse still, these same people had to wait three days (February 4, 2021) before Phil Harrison decided to speak and explain the reasons for this sudden turnaround. The news was given through a conference call, better known in the jargon as Conf Call, during which the President of Stadia explained that it was Microsoft’s takeover of Bethesda that motivated him to completely review the overall strategy of Stadia.
Creating AAA-style games from scratch takes many years and a lot of investment, and the costs are increasing exponentially. Since we are determined to build on Stadia technology and to go further in our business partnerships, we have decided to no longer invest more in the creation of exclusive content through our internal SG&E development team.
While there is nothing shocking about the turnaround and strategy in itself, it is the manner in which the leaders (primarily Phil Harrison) acted that beg the serious questions. Indeed, according to anonymous testimonies collected by Kotaku, Phil Harrison had sent an email to all of his teams 5 days earlier to congratulate them on the work accomplished and the “great progress” that had been made until then. What to comfort and motivate the troops as for the direction taken by the group.
Stadia Games & Entertainment has made great strides in building a diverse and talented team, but also in creating a solid catalog of games exclusive to Stadia. We will soon confirm the investment envelope intended for SG&E, which will help inform the SG&E strategy and the objectives and expected results for the year 2021.
If this investigation by Kotaku will undoubtedly push Phil Harrison to speak in the coming days, know that Jade Raymond has already spoken to Kotaku following this brutal decision, especially since it has decided to leave Google Stadia in the process.
I am proud of the team we have created at Stadia Games & Entertainment and the incredible work we have done on exclusive games for the platform. It was a tough decision to seize a new opportunity, and I will be forever grateful to this team for all we have learned and achieved together.
If the global crisis was also a factor in Phil Harrison’s decision to no longer invest colossal sums to produce in-house, it is obviously not forbidden that Google decides to afford already existing studios, with projects in progress. course to go faster in this need to deliver exclusive games. In itself, this strategy is not surprising, but all this shows that the initial thoughts were far from being well thought out. Still, for the public, nothing will change for Stadia subscribers, especially as more than 100 games are expected this year in the catalog. Will we see more exclusive titles following this change of course? Response in the coming months.
