Despite Stadia’s quiet launch, Google reinforces platform with first acquisition

Google announced that it has purchased Montreal-based Typhoon Studios. It will become part of the Stadia team and will work on exclusives for the platform.

Along with Stadia Games & Entertainment, that’s already two first-party studios working on content for Stadia in Montreal.

Journey to the Savage Planet

Typhoon was founded by Alex Hutchinson and Reid Schneider. Previously, Hutchinson was a lead designer on The Sims 2 and Spore, as well as creative director on Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 4. Schneider was a senior producer on the first Splinter Cell and executive producer on Batman: Arkham Knight, as well as other big titles.

The studio now employs 26 people that Stadia Games & Entertainment head Jade Raymond calls “a top AAA team of industry veterans.”

Prior to the acquisition, Typhoon has been working on coop adventure game Journey to the Savage Planet for three years. The title is set to launch in 2020 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. On PC, the game will be an EGS exclusive. The acquisition will in no way affect the plans for this release.

As for giving up being indie, Hutchinson and Schneider have no regrets. According to gamesindustry.biz, the studio intends to remain relatively small, but keep the same cast of high quality talents. All 26 people will go on to work on content for Stadia. The devs also expect to retain the full creative control over their next project that will be developed exclusively for Google’s cloud platform.

Typhoon became the first acquisition for Stadia, but Jade Raymond does not rule out further purchases down the road.