Google Stadia just hit a wall as game studio shuts down

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Google Stadia is shifting focus. The company announced today that it will be shutting downwardly its studios in Los Angeles and Montreal. Jade Raymond, creator of Assassin's Creed, is leaving the company as well.

According to sources close to Kotaku, pretty much any game that was slated to release after 2021 has been cancelled.

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Raymond, the creative head behind the Assassinator'due south Creed franchise at Ubisoft, was hired past Google as games and amusement vice president. Stadia GM and vice president Phil Harrison will remain.

"Creating best-in-class games from the footing up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going upwardly exponentially," Harrison said in the Stadia announcement. "Given our focus on edifice on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business organization partnerships, we've decided that we will non be investing further in bringing exclusive content from our internal development team SG&E, beyond any well-nigh-term planned games.

Harrison has had a storied career in games, having had executive roles at Microsoft, Sony, and the 2009 formation of Atari. Information technology'due south no wonder that Google sought him out.

Stadia is aiming to push its applied science with other companies, making its infrastructure the backbone for other games publishers.

"We're committed to the hereafter of cloud gaming, and will continue to practice our part to drive this manufacture forward," Harrison said. "Our goal remains focused on creating the all-time possible platform for gamers and engineering for our partners, bringing these experiences to life for people everywhere."

While this might exist a minor setback for Stadia, the company still has plans to leverage its might in the game streaming space. Already, Stadia has proven to exist one of the best places to play the computationally expensive Cyberpunk 2077.

While exclusive Google-fabricated games are now off the table, the company has the money to make sectional publishing deals with major studios. And with Microsoft upping the ante in studio acquisitions, the games race is nigh to go a lot more heated.

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Imad Khan is news editor at Tom's Guide, helping direct the day'due south breaking coverage. Prior to working at the site, Imad was a total-fourth dimension freelancer, with bylines at the New York Times, the Washington Post and ESPN. Outside of piece of work, you can find him sitting blankly in front of a Discussion certificate trying desperately to write the kickoff pages of a new book.