In context: Google has picked up another studio to help with in-house content development. The move marks the internet giant's continuing effort to make its Stadia cloud-gaming platform relative in a time when game-streaming is still in its infancy and has not proven itself to players as a better alternative to consoles and PCs.
In a bid to help bring more content to Stadia, Google has acquired independent development house Typhoon Studios. The team consists of veteran game makers, including some who worked on Batman: Arkham City and Far Cry 4.
The new subsidiary will work under Stadia Games and Entertainment Studio in Montreal headed up by Vice President Jade Raymond. Its first game will be Journey to the Savage Planet slated for release on January 28 on multiple platforms.
The purchase is part of a strategy to bring more development to the game-streaming service, which suffers from a lack of content. Stadia currently does not have enough exclusive titles to coax people from other gaming systems. Players have little incentive to pay for an expensive subscription service that only offers games already available on their consoles and PCs.
Acquiring new studios willing to work on the in-house development of exclusive titles is crucial for Stadia to succeed. It will also help to bolster the platform's lacking library more quickly, which is the motive for the acquisition.
"We plan to have multiple projects going on in Montreal," Raymond told VentureBeat.
Cloud-based gaming is still unproven as a viable alternative to playing on hardware. It is going to take a lot more than the novelty of streaming gameplay to any device to convince players to buy into the service.
Part of this is to increase the catalog of playable content and producing titles that cannot be found on other platforms, even if it's just timed exclusivity. Google seems to be positioning Typhoon to do just that.