For Stadia, the service is taking an unappealing turn for the future of its platform since the closure of its internal game development division, Stadia Games and Entertainment. Google without reason announced at the start of February that the developers residing under the Stadia banner will effectively be no more.
A follow-up report on the matters later issued that the reasoning for the decision spruced from Microsoft’s acquisition for Zenimax Media, parent company of Bethesda. And with the teams alongside its projects that were in development for Stadia are now cancelled, the same is also said for its partnered endeavors as well.
Upon learning initially for Stadia Games and Entertainment to shut down, it was gathered that Google’s arrangement with Harmonix, Supermassive Games, and Uppercut Games would also be relinquished as well. But in a new report, the project from Harmonix is said to already be ‘virtually complete’ as relayed by Video Game Chronicles.
Harmonix following the publishing of the report issued that the untitled game is still active and aims to bring the project to other platforms hopefully.
While Google has shifted its strategy, we remain incredibly excited about what we’ve been working on for Stadia and if the project isn’t released for Stadia we will take it to other platforms.
Steve Janiak, Harmonix CEO
In a broader sense of other endeavors that were underway at Stadia Games and Entertainment predating its demise, Video Game Chronicles also reports that Journey to the Savage Planet 2 was in line for a sequel as well. While not indicating the state of the project itself, the follow-up was said to be a more ambitious venture for the series with a larger world, rendered cutscenes, and an overall larger budget than the original.
Additionally, a separate multiplayer-oriented title was also mentioned to be in the pipeline at Stadia with former Ubisoft Producer Francois Pelland helming the team. Codenamed Frontier, the project would be a byproduct of the experience that Pelland obtained at Ubisoft working on the Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed franchises.
The report also told of a rejected episodic horror game pitched by Hideo Kojima and the producer’s self-named developer, Kojima Productions. But, Google later commented in a report by GamesRadar denying the claim and only deems the game to be in discussion as it never properly entered development for the Stadia platform.
In a separate report issued this past week, Bloomberg discloses Google’s high-spending pursuit to bring AAA titles to Stadia in the past year. The firm’s ambition includes the spending of “tens of millions of dollars” ensuring big budget titles make it to the platform. You can read the full report by heading here.
Which of these games were you hoping to see come to fruition?
Source: Video Game Chronicles
