Eventually, the Stadia Games and Entertainment teams received the software and people they needed to gain momentum at the Stadia games. The lure of a Google-sized salary and a weighted hamster wheel exit ramp was enough to attract a critical mass of developers to the Games and Entertainment Stadium. Artists, producers, audio experts, programmers had been brought in with the promise of making unique games for revolutionary software – and many believed, without the threat of layoffs like the sword of Damocles, as is often the case with traditional gaming companies. The teams explored what Google games might look like, how to best use the power of Google’s massive data centers, and present cloud games. Then Covid-19 hit.
In April 2020 – a month after the Los Angeles studio was announced – Google implemented a freeze on employment. “Now is the time to significantly slow the pace of employment,” Pichai said in an internal message, “while keeping pace in a small number of strategic areas where users and companies rely on Google for ongoing support and where our growth is.” is critical to their success. “Gambling, according to four sources, was not one of those” strategic areas. “
“If the company failed to freeze our employment, it was also okay to affect our ability to build content,” says a source. “The studio was not yet fully formed and ready to produce games. That put the brakes on and was a statement. I interpreted it as a lack of commitment on the part of Google to create content. ”
Google is not the first technology giant to face these difficulties. Amazon followed a similar arc. In 2020, quantity investigated the enormous challenges of Jeff Bezos’ empire that faced the production of primary games in its Amazon game studios. Like Google, Amazon has hired the best of the best: trusted developers like. Far Cry 2Clint Hocking, System shock 2to Ian Vogel, EverQuestis John Smedley and PortalKim Swift, many of whom were excited about the stability and relatively higher wages associated with the tech giant. Amazon’s goal, according to several sources, was to create a multi-billion dollar franchise to help promote the company’s cloud technology, its own game engine and Twitch streaming service.
The approach, sources say, was hubristic. Amazon wanted to “win games” by simultaneously developing several AAA games, despite its non-existent track record in the industry. Amazon Game Studios boss Mike Frazzini has no previous gaming experience. The high expectations combined with Amazon’s idiosyncrasy – an obsession with internal software, for example, and a fixation on measuring success with data – led to failure after failure. Amazon has canceled at least three of its games: Project Nova, LIFTING, and Crucible, the last of which was canceled just five months after its launch.
The development of the AAA game can cost between 100 and 200 million dollars. Successes like Blizzard’s Overwatch they come from the ashes of failures, like the massive multiplayer online role-playing game abandoned by the company Titanium. Designing products for large technology companies may not always be easy, but designing games is a maze that consumes resources and money.
“I think it’s a lack of understanding of the process,” said a source working at the Stadium. “It seemed that there are people at the executive level who do not fully understand how to navigate an extremely creative, interdisciplinary space.”
During the freezing of Google’s engagement, game developers felt hindered from achieving their goals. Prototypes were developed without complete resources; the studios did not work at full capacity. When it came time to review performance, three sources say that Google judged game developers against the benchmarks created for UX or visual designers. There is no number associated with “fun-to-play” or a process-based workflow to generate creativity. Veteran game developers lobbied for their work culture as much as they could. Over time, Google seemed to soften. The developers received the tools they needed, the proper review processes. But not the staff. The frustration persisted.