Google shuts down Stadia’s internal game studios, plans to refocus its streaming service

The future of another Google’s product seems hazy. The company is about to stop developing games for Stadia, meaning the streaming service will have no more exclusive titles.

Phil Harrison, Stadia’s general manager, announced the news in a blog post. He says that creating first-party games requires significant investments, while the development cost is growing exponentially. So Google decided to dissolve its internal team Stadia Games and Entertainment.

“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,” Harrison’s statement reads.

The company will close two game studios in Montreal and Los Angeles, according to Kotaku. This decision will reportedly impact around 150 employees, but Google will try to find them new roles at other divisions.

Jade Raymond also decided to leave her position as head of SG&E. She’s a veteran producer, who helped build two first iterations of the Assassin’s Creed franchise and worked at EA.

Harrison emphasized that Google will continue to support and develop Stadia as a streaming service. Users will still be able to play third-party games, while the company will start to offer its technology to other publishers.

“Our goal remains focused on creating the best possible platform for gamers and technology for our partners, bringing these experiences to life for people everywhere,” Harrison concludes.

Google Stadia publicly launched in 2019 as a competitor to other cloud gaming services like GeForce Now, PlayStation Now, and Xbox Cloud Gaming.