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Google closes internal Stadia studios as Jade Raymond exits

Google Stadia's future will not involve first-party development, as the company is closing its Montreal and Los Angeles gaming studios.
Ozzie Mejia
Ozzie Mejia
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Google has had high hopes for its streaming Stadia platform since its 2019 release. However, if it's going to have a future, it's going to have to come through third-party publishers and developers. That's because it appears that Google is giving up on first-party game development. On Monday, Google announced that it would close its internal studios. That means there's no place for former Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond, who has left the company.

The news comes from a Kotaku report, which indicates that the Montreal and Los Angeles game studios will both be shuttered. That stands to affect close to 150 game developers, though the report adds that Google is endeavoring to find new roles for them at the company.

Google's grand plans for Stadia included a streaming platform for $10 a month that would stream high-end games, such as Cyberpunk 2077. However, there were also plans for Google to release its own games, a plan that now seems to be out the window. Since that's the case, Google confirmed that Jade Raymond, who was initially brought on board to lead the Stadia Games and Entertainment Studio, had left the company.

Stadia can still hang its hat on its third-party releases, which is especially true given that it was one of the few platforms to run Cyberpunk 2077 with little to no issues. With Stadia coming to iOS platforms (Editor's note: It's on iOS now!) and Chromecast with Google TV soon, its best days may be ahead of it.

Shacknews will continue to monitor this story and monitor the goings-on with Google Stadia. Keep it here for the latest.

Senior Editor
Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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