Google fires 150 game developers hired for Stadia: Report

Google has reportedly laid off 150 game developers it hired to make world-class games for its Cloud streaming service Stadia, after it announced to shut down its Stadia Games and Entertainment devision earlier this month.

According to a report in The Wired citing sources, “Google couldn’t stomach the expensive and complicated creative process necessary to build high-caliber video games especially considering Stadia’s unremarkable subscription numbers”.

In 2019, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced to launch Stadia, its Cloud gaming service like Apple Arcade, built on the company’s cloud infrastructure.

Google also announced that it would produce its own exclusive game titles for the service.

In about two years, Google has announced to shut down the in-house Stadia game development division, as it sees a great adoption of its technology by third-party developers and publishers to create world-class games.

Google has said that it will not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from its internal development team SG&E, beyond any near-term planned games.

According to the report on Friday, several of those who lost their jobs “still don’t have clarity on why”.

“Google is a tech company, not a content company. And while Stadia launched in November 2019 with third-party games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Destiny 2 and would eventually add dozens to its roster Google’s own Stadia games never materialised,” the report mentioned.

According to current and former Stadia employees, the tech company, so good at making services, “simply wasn’t set up to nourish the chaotic, multidisciplinary circus that is making games”.

Google said in 20201, it will expand efforts to help game developers and publishers take advantage of its platform technology and deliver games directly to their players.

Google is adding new games led by PixelJunk Raiders, AVICII Invector and PAC-MAN Mega Tunnel Battle to Stadia next month for Stadia Pro members.

Recently, Google confirmed that it is planning to launch more than 100 games to the Stadia store for its players this year.