A report from VGC states that the Google Stadia team canceled several noteworthy exclusive titles this month and over the past several months, including a sequel to Typhoon Studios’ Journey to the Savage Planet, a project proposal with Hideo Kojima, and more.
Typhoon, who was independent until its acquisition by Google in December 2019, had reportedly entered full production on the sequel to Journey to the Savage Planet. The scale of the sequel was supposed to be much larger, including new features like fully animated cutscenes.
Additionally, Google was working on several third-party exclusive agreements. Kojima Productions was supposed to create an episodic horror game, and the studio was excited to see what it could achieve with cloud gaming. However, Stadia vice president Phil Harrison blocked the deal. Another project proposal mentioned was one from Yu Suzuki, who is known for the Outrun and Shenmue franchises.
A team led by Francois Pelland, who helped produce Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, was reportedly developing a multiplayer game codenamed Frontier. Along with many other Stadia developers at Google, Typhoon Studios and Pelland’s team only learned about their games being canceled when Harrison publicly announced that Stadia was shutting down its internal studios earlier this month.
Reportedly, Harmonix was also working on an original title for Stadia that is actually near completion. Issues with music licensing around the Stadia Pro subscription model reportedly caused significant roadblocks, which Harmonix CEO Steve Janiak denied but said, “While Google has shifted its strategy, we remain incredibly excited about what we’ve been working on for Stadia, and if the project isn’t released for Stadia we will take it to other platforms.”
Hopefully, some of these other canceled Stadia games can find new homes and platforms somewhere else in the future. In related news, Stadia reportedly missed sales targets on its controllers and active user base while also spending tremendous amounts for AAA ports.
