Stadia Stops Internal Development

Within our little groups’ chats here at Phenixx Gaming, I will often use gifs in place of whatever it is I want to say. A lot of the time I’ll use one Jerremy Clarkson gif from Top Gear, his “It’s time for the smug face” one where he then proceeds to be smug about something. It’s time for the smug face, as my prophecies are coming true of that thing called “Google Stadia.”

Releasing only 14-months ago, the game streaming platform got what is best described as “polarized” viewpoints on the system. Some enjoy it with limited issues, others have had nothing but issues, and there are people like me who enjoy at least owning games of some kind. Possibly the biggest problem the platform has to overcome is the fact it is trying to challenge the established stronghold the industry already features with Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo atop it. Challenging that with something that doesn’t work properly for a majority, as we saw with PlayStation VR, is an issue. A majority of U.S. households don’t have steady enough internet for streaming games.

Well, now according to a blog post from Stadia’s Phill Harrison on Monday, the platform will no longer be developing its own games internally. Harrison states: “Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially. 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.” So those soon scheduled to release will be finished, it seems.

Harrison continues to note the recent departure of Jade Raymond, previously of Assassins Creed and Watch_Dogs, by saying, “With the increased focus on using our technology platform for industry partners, Jade Raymond has decided to leave Google to pursue other opportunities. We greatly appreciate Jade’s contribution to Stadia and wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors. 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.”

Harrison does also note that this is not the “sky is falling” moment that some perceive people like me are “hoping for.” Instead, Harrison reiterated Google’s dedication to the future of Cloud-based gaming and improving the technologies of the platform to become the best possible experience. Let me tell you a quick story: In 1994, Sega released a piece of hardware (I know!) called the Sega Channel, which was a way of downloading games via TV static… in 1994. However, if that static was interrupted for any reason while your Mega Drive was listening for it, the “download,” as it were, would corrupt. To combat this in the US and UK, Sega helped cable providers improve infrastructure across the board, improving not only TV quality, but providing video game downloads in 1994.

What I am saying here is, while it is nice improving the tech of your servers, it would also help to improve the infrastructure surrounding your platform. As it stands, many households across the U.S. and across the planet aren’t exactly able to have the best possible experience Harrison is on about. Think about the infrastructure of your platform before proclaiming it the winner via Twitter in Michigan.