Google brought on a lot of famous names during Stadia’s first two years to support it, but many of them have now started to go away. A recent source claims that The Quarry, which was initially planned to be a significant Stadia release, is no longer even coming to the platform.
Axios reports this week that, in 2020, Google’s contract with Supermassive Games was expected to lead to The Quarry playing a big role in enhancing Stadia. THE QUARRY WOULD HAVE BEEN A SIGNATURE STADIA GAME. It sounds like the game might have been some kind of exclusive because it would have been a signature release for the platform.
Obviously, that transaction failed.
Take-Two Interactive, a publisher best known for Borderlands and its 2K Sports video games, later launched The Quarry on June 10 for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC users. However, Supermassive Games, a company with which Google had publicly announced a relationship through its Stadia Games and Entertainment program in 2020, was responsible for creating the game itself. Less than a year after making that statement, Google closed the studio and shelved all pending work, including all first-party games being developed for Stadia.
Since The Quarry’s debut earlier this month, it has received positive reviews from critics and earned an mostly positive user reviews on PC rating.
Stadia is not currently, at least publicly, mentioned in The Quarry’s roadmap.
High on Life was rumored to be visiting Stadia as well. The fact that High on Life was intended to be yet another signature release on Stadia is also referenced in this Axios story. Recently, it was confirmed that the game would be released on Xbox and PC. It was created by Justin Roiland, who is also the co-creator of Rick and Morty.
Google never made a public announcement about a collaboration with Squanch Games.
Like The Quarry, there are currently no signs that High on Life will be coming to Stadia, and all parties have stayed mute regarding the game’s Stadia beginnings.
Google’s 9TO5 This incident just serves to highlight Google’s errors with Stadia, a platform that offers ground-breaking technology and has great potential. But because Google didn’t adequately set expectations, Stadia had a rough launch and ultimately wasn’t given enough time to really take off.
With so much more competition in cloud gaming today and so much support for the concept from Microsoft in particular, it is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine Stadia ever living up to its claims or delivering on games that were once expected to be released. It reminds me of the scenario with Tchia, which was once planned as a Stadia exclusive but was shelved after SGandamp;E shut down
