Google Stadia has opened a new studio in Playa Vista, California to work on exclusive games for the platform. The new studio will be headed up by Shannon Studstill who joins Stadia Games and Entertainment in Santa Clara after years at Sony Santa Monica where she worked as executive producer on God of War. Studstill has also worked on titles like The Order: 1886, Twisted Metal, and The Unfinished Swan.
For Stadia, it marks the third exclusive games studio to come under Google's exclusive development umbrella since the end of 2019. The first studio, Stadia Games and Entertainment Montreal opened shortly after Stadia launched in November, and in January the company acquired new indie studio Typhoon Studios ahead of its debut title, Journey to the Savage Planet.
Savage Planet earned "Strong" scores on OpenCritic when it launched at the end of January, averaging a 76 from 95 critics. It's expected that the game will eventually make its way to Stadia, though it's not yet been announced.
Vice President of Stadia, Jade Raymond said in the announcement that the company is looking into how to use Stadia's unique features to build new games.
"The new Playa Vista studio will focus on delivering exclusive games, using new gameplay mechanics, creative ways to play together and unique interaction models that we’re just starting to explore. While we’re not ready to share specific game plans yet, rest assured we are listening to what gamers want and adding our own Stadia twists to create new IP and experiences."
The three studios will now work on producing games exclusively for the Stadia platform, which will no doubt be necessary as the platform's loudest critics have cited a dearth of games on the platform. Stadia recently eclipsed the 30 games total benchmark, which is far too few for many would-be buyers, though the company does promise over 120 new games will be coming to Stadia in 2020.
