Earlier this year, Google announced that it would form its own gaming division, with the intent of producing original and exclusive content for its forthcoming cloud-based gaming service, Google Stadia. Today, the tech giant has announced that its first gaming studio has opened in Montreal, Canada.
According to a recent Google recent blog post, Stadia Games and Entertainment will be led by industry veteran Jade Raymon, who reiterated in the blog post that the studio’s mission is to produce “exclusive, original content across a diverse portfolio of games.”
This will allow Stadia to receive a steady flow of first-party content not available anywhere else in addition to its supply of second and third-party titles such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Borderlands 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and Destiny 2.
With Stadia competing with gaming systems such as the Nintendo Switch and with the next generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles slated to launch a year from now, it is crucial for Stadia to start developing its own original IPs to incentivize players to hop on Stadia.
“It’s very important for first-party games, in my opinion, to be games that wouldn’t be possible on any other platform,” Raymond stated. “I think that’s what’s really exciting and why we’re building out the first-party teams.”
There is no official word yet on its first batch of first-party games launching on Stadia, which is slated to launch officially on November 19. Although it has been reported that even pre-ordering, the service does not guarantee you can play Stadia on its official launch day. Raymond has yet to comment on what genre(s) the studio will be focusing on, given Google’s extensive background in various tech industry beats such as artificial intelligence.
With Stadia launching in three weeks, we can strongly infer that second- and third-party titles will primarily support Google Stadia for the first few months until the Canadian-based studio can hire enough people to help build out Stadia’s original content portfolio.
In addition to announcing the studio’s office location, the blog post also served as a job posting of sorts for game developers looking for work and interested in joining the ambitious Montreal-based developer, citing what the studio aims to do and that it has several positions to fill.
“We believe in being more: More ambitious. More inclusive. More accessible. More immersive. More engaging. We’re bringing that mentality to Stadia Games and Entertainment, and now with our first studio, we’re looking for the best developers on the planet to join us,” the blog post said.
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