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Google’s cloud streaming service Stadia is “alive and well,” despite recent high-profile departures and the closure of its first party studios.
That’s according to developer marketing lead Nate Ahearn in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, who says that the company is on track to meet its target of 100 games released on the platform in 2021.
“We’re well on our way to over 100 new games launching on Stadia in 2021, and we’re continuing to make Stadia a great place to play games on devices you already own,” said Ahearn. “I’d tell any non-believers to take notice of how we’re continuing to put our words into action, as we grow the Stadia Makers program and partner with AAA studios like Capcom, EA, Square Enix, Ubisoft and others.”
Google recently unveiled the latest batch of games coming to Stadia under the Stadia Makers program: including the likes of The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark, Figment 2: Creed Valley and Skyclimbers.
The claim comes after Stadia closed its internal development studios, meaning that the platform is focused on attracting third party developers, through schemes such as Stadia Makers. Ahearn pointed to the recent additions of Resident Evil Village and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order to the Stadia Pro subscription service. He also pointed to new features added to Stadia – a search engine was recently introduced, though Google introducing a search engine is perhaps not the greatest surprise feature.
Still, Stadia has lost a lot of high-profile staff in recent months. Jade Raymond recently departed the company to set up Haven Studios, and just recently Stadia’s head of product John Justice resigned, with six members of staff leaving to join Raymond and Haven. Replacing Justice is Dov Zimring, a “long-time Googler and Stadia founder.”
“Dov has been instrumental as a senior leader in the product development for both Project Stream and Stadia,” said a Stadia spokesperson. “He will be leading the team toward our goals of creating the best possible platform for gamers and technology for our partners.”
