Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Game over: Google to shutter its in-house Stadia game development studio

By

Google is shuttering its internal game development studio for Stadia, the company’s cloud-based gaming platform.

In a message posted on Monday, February 1, the web giant cited high costs as one of the reasons for its decision, adding that the move will allow it to focus on enhancing Stadia for third-party developers and building its business partnerships.

Recommended Videos

The closure comes 14 months after Google launched Stadia for gaming fans, particularly casual players who don’t already own a console.

Related

In preparation for the November 2019 launch, the company created the Stadia Games and Entertainment (SG&E) unit eight months earlier to build its own software for the service. But its two offices — in Montreal and Los Angeles — will now be closed.

“Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially,” Google Stadia’s Phil Harrison wrote in a post announcing the decision. “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.”

Jade Raymond, head of SG&E, will leave Google to pursue other opportunities, Harrison said, adding that over the coming months, most of the SG&E team will be given new roles within the company.

To confirm, Stadia will continue as a platform, but all new games added to the service will now come from third-party developers and publishers.

The move to close SG&E is a notable setback for Google’s once-lofty ambitions in the gaming space, with the company now taking a back seat when it comes to game development.

Google — together with parent company Alphabet — has always been quick to dismantle projects that it feels are not working out. Just last month, for example, it also shuttered its Loon balloon internet project after revealing that it was finding it difficult to turn the service into a commercially viable business.

Yet to try Stadia? Digital Trends has some top tips for the best games currently available on the service. Stadia Pro is free to try for one month and $10 a month thereafter. A free tier is also available.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
It’s the last day of Nintendo’s April Indie Sale — don’t miss these 7 great games
hades best builds key art new cropped hed 1244036

Nintendo just hosted an Indie World showcase and previewed some exciting indie games like Rift of the Necrodancer, Blasphemous 2, and Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals. While the Nintendo Switch has always been a first-party, AAA-title machine, it's also become an indie powerhouse over the years and is home to some of the best small games on the market. To celebrate its stream, Nintendo just launched a weeklong sale on some of its top indie titles, including all-time greats like Celeste and Hades.

The sale kicked off on April 19 and runs until April 26 at midnight PT. While you have a good week to browse, here are seven excellent deals that you'll want to take advantage of before time's up.
Celeste -- $5 (75% off)

Read more
Move over, Wordle: The New York Times has a new puzzle game
top tech stories of the week 7 24 2015 new york times starbucks deal

The New York Times has introduced the next title coming to its Games catalog following Wordle's continued success -- and it's all about math. Digits has players adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers. You can play its beta for free online right now. 
In Digits, players are presented with a target number that they need to match. Players are given six numbers and have the ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide them to get as close to the target as they can. Not every number needs to be used, though, so this game should put your math skills to the test as you combine numbers and try to make the right equations to get as close to the target number as possible.

Players will get a five-star rating if they match the target number exactly, a three-star rating if they get within 10 of the target, and a one-star rating if they can get within 25 of the target number. Currently, players are also able to access five different puzzles with increasingly larger numbers as well.  I solved today's puzzle and found it to be an enjoyable number-based game that should appeal to inquisitive minds that like puzzle games such as Threes or other The New York Times titles like Wordle and Spelling Bee.
In an article unveiling Digits and detailing The New York Time Games team's process to game development, The Times says the team will use this free beta to fix bugs and assess if it's worth moving into a more active development phase "where the game is coded and the designs are finalized." So play Digits while you can, as The New York Times may move on from the project if it doesn't get the response it is hoping for. 
Digits' beta is available to play for free now on The New York Times Games' website

Read more
Netflix may bring its gaming service to TVs, with iPhones serving as controllers
The Netflix Games section.

Netflix is working on a feature that will bring its games to smart TVs and allow players to use their iPhone as a controller, reports from Bloomberg and MacRumors' Steve Moser said on Wednesday.

The move would take Netflix’s gaming service beyond only smartphones and tablets, giving subscribers more ways to play. And for iPhone owners, it also eliminates the need to buy a dedicated controller, making it more likely that people would give its games a go.

Read more