New reports detail Stadia's demise, cancelled projects and wasted millions Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. New reports detail Stadia's demise, cancelled projects and wasted millions The horror. News by Wesley Yin-Poole Deputy Editorial Director Updated on 27 Feb 2021 114 comments A trio of new reports on Stadia's demise has revealed Google's missteps and a raft of cancelled projects. Earlier in February, Google shut down its first-party development operation, impacting around 150 people. According to Bloomberg, Stadia missed sales targets for its controller, and targets for monthly active users by hundreds of thousands. Reportedly, staff within Stadia were worried the service would not deliver what was expected from customers upon its late 2019 release, and called on management to position the launch as a beta test. However, Stadia boss Phil Harrison and others on the leadership allegedly resisted, choosing instead to go with the big bang-style launch expected of new consoles. Apparently Stadia forked out tens of millions of dollars to get big games such as Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2 on the system. When Stadia did launch, it missed promised features. Watch on YouTube According to a new report from Wired, Google struggled to understand game development. The report also details how Harrison issued a rallying cry to Stadia employees in an email sent on 27th January 2021. Five days later, Harrison told staff during a short stream that Stadia Games and Entertainment was shutting down. It failed to release a single game. And today, VGC reports on a number of cancelled projects that were in the works for Stadia. Most eye-catching, perhaps, is that Google itself backed out of proposals for celebrated Japanese developers Hideo Kojima and Yu Suzuki to create Stadia exclusives. VGC said the Kojima Productions project would have been an episodic horror game, but it was blocked by Stadia in 2020. As the website notes, this project may have been the same one Kojima himself mentioned as being cancelled back in May 2020. Watch on YouTube Perhaps unsurprisingly, Typhoon, the studio Google bought in 2020, was working on a sequel to Journey to the Savage Planet. Meanwhile, another Stadia team led by former Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed: Syndicate producer Francois Pelland saw a multiplayer action game cancelled. With its in-house development ditched, Stadia's future appears to be helping outside game developers use its streaming tech. Investment in exclusives has ceased, although some existing deals are still coming to fruition. For example, this week Q-Games announced PixelJunk Raiders, the latest entry in the PixelJunk series, which is set to launch exclusively on Google Stadia on 1st March 2021. It will be interesting to see if, given recent developments, PixelJunk Raiders also comes to other platforms. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More News Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 4 Atari will hold RollerCoaster Tycoon rights for another decade Ups and downs. 7 Lady Dimitrescu will be a tad smaller in Resident Evil Village's Mercenaries DLC Level the playing field. 1 Overwatch 2 suffers another DDoS attack and character roster bugs Mei Mei. 13 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 4 Genshin Impact Path of Gleaming Jade dates, login event rewards Including other anniversary rewards and how to claim them. Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store