Google's entry into games was frustrated and announced that it would close the Stadia Games and Entertainment division
In 2019, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that it would launch Stadia, a gaming platform built on cloud infrastructure. But Google's self-developed Stadia game has never become a reality. Earlier in March, Google announced the closure of the Stadia Games and Entertainment (SG&E) department and the dismissal of all 150 senior game developers that it had hired, who were originally going to make first-party games for Stadia.
Many developers who lost their jobs still don't know why, but sources familiar with Stadia's operations believe that after investing tens of millions of dollars in two-game studios, Google can't stand the expensive and complex creative process required to create high-quality video games. It's because of Stadia's insignificant number of subscriptions. Tencent Technology reported that a current Stadia employee said: "I even doubt how well the leadership of Stadia knows what they are doing. They made exaggerated promises but couldn't keep it."
Four current and former Stadia employees said in an interview with the media that despite Google's heavy investment and recruitment, it will never focus on game development. This technology company, which is better at providing services, was not founded to nourish a chaotic, multidisciplinary game circus.
In 2018, Google hired Sony and former Microsoft executive Phil Harrison (Phil Harrison) to lead the Stadia department. A year later, Harrison enthusiastically stated that Google had delivered Stadia hardware to more than 100 game studios and more than 1,000 "creatives." He also announced the establishment of SG&E, "committed to creating an experience specifically designed for Stadia." But a few months later, Google began to hire most of the game developers.
Google spent several years developing the underlying service of Stadia, which was launched on November 19, 2019. Two sources said that Google's first mistake was to separate the development of Stadia from SG&E. Two sources said that the hiring of game developers largely indicated Google's early priorities, leading to the breakdown of trust between Google's technical staff in Mountain View and the two-game studios.
A source who is still working at SG&E said: "Google is actually an engineering and technology company, and creating content usually doesn't work with Google."
When Google tried to enrich the game team at the beginning, there were obstacles to hiring senior game developers. As we all know, Google's recruitment process is lengthy and complicated. It may take 6-9 months. It took a while for Google to expand the recruitment standards to adapt to the skills required for game development, instead of focusing on traditional areas. Two sources said that the goal is to attract 2,000 people to develop games for Stadia within 5 years.
However, Google is a highly structured company and relies on highly structured processes. On the other hand, game development is organic and chaotic, and it occurs simultaneously across multiple disciplines using countless software. Three sources said that Google has set obstacles in the most basic principles of game production, such as refusing to use certain game development software (obviously worrying about security issues).
Two sources said that it will take 3 to 5 years for super-exquisite games to be worthy of Google's revolutionary platform, which makes it impossible for this service to be launched with first-party games. Instead, Stadia made its debut with several mature games, including "Final Fantasy XV", "NBA 2K20" and "German Headquarters: Freshman". No matter external or internal, the reaction is not tepid.
Someone evaluated Stadia on a score of 1-10 and found that the delay of this streaming media service affected "Mortal Kombat 11", a fighting game that relies on twitch reflections and lightning input.
Even if the optical fiber is directly connected to the router, various devices can be connected at the expense of quality. SG&E employees are also worried that the technology will feel like a beta version when it is released. A source said that more tests could have been done under different conditions and different equipment. Stadia did not disclose the number of subscriptions, but two sources said that 2020 did not meet internal expectations.
Then the new crown pneumonia epidemic broke out. In April 2020, one month after the Los Angeles studio was established, Google suspended recruitment. Pichai said in internal information: “It's time to significantly slow down the pace of hiring while maintaining momentum in the few strategic areas where users and businesses rely on Google for continuous support. In these areas, our growth is critical to their success. Important.” According to 4 sources, games are not included in the “strategic field”.
A source said: “If the company asks to freeze hiring, they don't mind damaging our ability to build content. The studio hasn’t been fully built and ready to make games, Google will step on the brakes. We interpret it as, Google's lack of commitment in producing content."