GamesJourney to the Savage PlanetJourney to the Savage Planet developer says Google only wanted ‘monstrous’ games with major licenses for Stadia: ‘They were very strange’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

GamesJourney to the Savage PlanetJourney to the Savage Planet developer says Google only wanted ‘monstrous’ games with major licenses for Stadia: ‘They were very strange’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Raccoon Logic)

Revenge of the Savage Planet screenshot

There have been few more spectacular flameouts in the videogame industry than that ofStadia. After a promise-the-world buildup that included the hiring of industry luminariesPhil HarrisonandJade Raymond, the whole thingfell apartjust three years after it went live, leaving owners with nothing but a Bluetooth controller and some cautionary memories.

The cause of the shutdown has been widely attributed to alack of big-name contentthat prevented Stadia from claiming a meaningfulshare of the market, but in a new interview withEurogamer, Raccoon Logic co-founder and creative director Alex Hutchinson put a somewhat finer point on it: Google really didn’t know what it was getting itself into.

As you might imagine, that experience did not leave many happy memories. One big issue, according to Hutchinson, is that Google wanted Typhoon to pitch games using major licenses like Marvel and Star Wars, even though the studio was quite small. Google apparently reckoned that Typhoon could work on them as-is, and then hire more people if the games were a hit.

“No one was talking the same language… it was very difficult,” Hutchinson said. “We would ask these questions, and we would get the confused puppy look.”

Google also wanted the studio to make games that could only be played on the cloud. “It was like saying, ‘Here at Netflix, we only make TV shows that couldn’t be on any other form of TV’, and you’re like, I don’t know what that is. They were very strange.”

The timing of the studio closure was particularly brutal. It came not only on the day Journey to the Savage Planet launched on Stadia, but also at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which meant Typhoon developers couldn’t even get together to commiserate. “It was pretty dark,” Hutchinson said. “The most callous redundancies in games are the day you ship, you know… but that happening in a pandemic was really not fun.”

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

That should make for an interesting trip, at least.Revenge of the Savage Planetis currently expected to be out sometime in 2025.

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