Google Will Build Game Studios For Stadia Exclusives

Google, via games chief Jade Raymond, has announced that it will be working on building multiple game studios specifically for its upcoming cloud gaming platform, Stadia. 

The Google VP explained the first games that will be debuting alongside the platform in November are existing ones, though a number of them, such as Ghost Recon Breakpoint, are taking advantage of exclusive functionality. 

Next, titles from independent developers will start to make an appearance.

“Initially we’re going to have some interesting indie-style titles we sign and they might look a little different, or take advantage of a YouTube integration, or have a different role for a streamer,” Raymond told Games Industry in an interview. “But they won’t right away solve every problem or uncover every possibility of what cloud-native gaming is going to open up.”

While in March Google said that it does have plans to become a game developer and create a Stadio studio, Raymond now revealed that the tech giant doesn’t plan to have just one single studio. 

“We have a plan that includes building out a few different first-party studios,” Raymond said. The studio will release Stadia-exclusive titles every year and will integrate the Google Assistant to serve as the voice of NPCs in the games. 

However, Raymond says, it might be a while before we see any games released from Google’s proprietary studios: “[i]t won’t be four years before gamers get to see the new exclusive, exciting content. There will be some coming out every year, and more and more each year.”