Games

Stadia Has Acquired Its First Developer, Typhoon Studios

‘Journey to the Savage Planet’ will still be released as planned.
Stadia has acquired its first developer, Typhoon Studios
Image courtesy of 505 Games

The launch of Stadia has been a mess, and given Google’s sketchy track record when it comes to long term commitments, it’s perfectly reasonable to wonder what Stadia might look like in a few years. That skepticism is likely to linger, but Google made a counterargument today in announcing it’s acquired Journey to the Savage Planet developer Typhoon Studios.

The already announced Journey to the Savage Planet is not suddenly becoming a Stadia exclusive, and will still be released on multiple platforms in January. It is not currently coming to Stadia, though one would not be surprised if Google invested some resources into that.

Advertisement

Typhoon Studios was founded by Reid Schneider and Alex Hutchinson. The latter name probably rings a bell because he was the creative director on Far Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed III at Ubisoft. Previously, Hutchinson was the director of EA’s Army of Two: The 40th Day (remember that series?!), and worked as a lead designer on Spore and The Sims 2.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, it sounded like Typhoon Studios has only started to think about what it might build under Google, meaning any new games are pretty far off.

“It's very early and the team has to spend some time thinking about what it is they want to do, and how they view which exclusive features they see pushing the platform," said Stadia games and entertainment lead Jade Raymond. "So it's not going to be tomorrow or 2020 that they're going to be shipping the next game.”

Follow Patrick on Twitter. His email is patrick.klepek@vice.com, and available privately on Signal (224-707-1561).