From ambitious to a feather, even if the strength is as strong as Google, it can’t eat the hard bones of game development.
Editor’s note: This article from the micro-channel public number “AI front” (ID: ai-front), of: span style cecilia danastasi, <= " letter-spacing: 0px;">Compiling and finishing: Liu Yan, Nuclear Cola.
From ambitious to just like a feather, even if you are as powerful as Google, you can’t eat the hard bones of game development.
Google Cloud Games finally becomes a dream
Google announced in March 2019 that it would develop first-party games for Stadia. But this dream had been completely shattered in just two years.
In March 2019, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stood on the stage of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and said that Google wants to bring surprises to players around the world. He is not a fan of games himself, and Google has not had any presence in the game market for a long time.
But in fact, many Google employees started their own journey of exploring computer science with games as their starting point. Games such as chess and Go have become an excellent training platform for Google’s DeepMind AI, and Waymo is also testing its self-driving car system in a manner similar to a game simulation environment. Pichai emphasized that Google will officially launch Statia, a game platform built on the company’s cloud infrastructure. In addition, Google will also launch its own first-party games to promote the smooth development of Stadia.
It sounds promising, but there is still a problem-Google is a technology company, not a content producer. Although Stadia attracted third-party escort games such as “Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey” and “Destiny 2” when it debuted in November 2019, and subsequently expanded the support list to dozens of games, the first-party works promised by Google have always Nothing happened.
Just in early February, Google announced the closure of Stadia’s game and entertainment department, and the 150 game developers who joined the company at the beginning also quickly lost their jobs less than two years later. Sources familiar with Stadia’s operations pointed out that after dropping tens of millions of dollars on the two game studios, Google found that it could not afford the expensive and complicated creative process brought about by the development of high-quality video games. In addition, the number of Stadia subscribers is too small, and the timely stop loss has beenHas become the only viable option.
A Stadia employee said, “I suspect that the Stadia management doesn’t understand games at all, and they don’t even know what the promise they made at the press conference means.”
Four current and former employees of Stadia were interviewed and said that although Google has been working hard to inject capital and recruit new people, it has not focused its core energy on game development. Obviously, for this high-tech company that is good at providing services, it has not been able to establish the multidisciplinary and cross-functional development system required for game development.
In 2018, Google hired former Sony and Microsoft executives Phil Harrison to lead its Stadia department. Pichai joked, “Phil can definitely tell what is going on between RPG and NPC.” A year later, Pichai officially introduced Harrison on the stage of the Google Developers Conference.
This new executive also has huge ambitions: the super powerful data center will provide amazing gaming experience to almost any device around the world at lightning speed, for those users who have not been able to enjoy PC and game consoles in the past. Bring the gospel. For only $10 a month, gamers can experience top-notch video game streaming on their mobile phones and tablets via Wi-Fi. In order to achieve this goal, Google needs to tackle practical issues such as infrastructure, performance, design, ultra-large scale, 4K, and 1080p alone.
Since the conference, Harrison has begun to deliver Stadia hardware solutions to more than 100 studios, and more than 1,000 related game development proposals. Later, he announced the official establishment of the Stadia Games and Entertainment Department, “specially designing the Stadia game experience.” A few months later, Google began to recruit a large number of game developers.
Those who used to “brown”: vow to revolutionize game development
Google’s funds were not used to support the game itself, but to support the Stadia platform through the game’s shell.
Three sources familiar with Stadia’s gaming and entertainment department said that they were attracted by Stadia’s promise of equal technology and regarded this as a game delivery revolution. They believe that the giant Google is expected to bring stable positions and a more moist lifestyle that traditional game companies cannot achieve.
In the face of the horrible wave of layoffs, project cancellations, and unlimited overtime (especially before the game is released, the weekly working hours of practitioners often reach 60 or 80 hours), senior game developers want to make a plea for themselves More decent way out. And Google, maybe it can really become the cultural prosperity and atmosphere that everyone yearns for.Surrounded by a relaxing holy place.
Before the Google Developers Conference, Google also successfully absorbed Jade Raymon, the founder of Ubisoft Toronto. Harrison then brought in a number of senior developers, designers and producers from Ubisoft and Electronic Arts. In December 2019, Google announced the acquisition of Montreal-based game studio Typhoon Studios. This studio is known for its work “A Journey to the Wild Planet”. This time, Google joined Stadia with dozens of employees. Stadia Games and Entertainment Division will be divided into two studios, one in Montreal and the other in Los Angeles. Raymond serves as the chief of both.
In a blog post on the establishment of the Montreal studio announced in October 2019, Raymond enthusiastically stated that Stadia Games and Entertainment will develop more “unique original content, covering all kinds of game types that everyone loves.” She wrote, Stadia will not only revolutionize the game platform, but also completely change the basic way of game development. Raymond announced the Los Angeles studio in March of the following year, and hired Sony Daniel Shannon Studstill as the supervisor.
At this time, the development of Google’s Stadia basic service has taken several years, and the main service is scheduled to start on November 19, 2019. Two sources said that Google’s first mistake was to insist on keeping Stadia’s development in sync with the expansion of Stadia’s games and entertainment department. In their view, the act of establishing the project first and then recruiting developers has exposed Google’s true thinking. This also directly led to a crisis of trust between the two game studios and the Google department.
A source also mentioned that “Google is a typical engineering technology company and does not have the functional role required to produce content.”
And since its inception, Google has encountered considerable obstacles in recruiting senior game developers. Google’s recruitment process is notoriously long and notoriously slow, and the entire cycle may take 6 to 9 months. Google has spent a lot of time expanding the scope of recruitment and recruiting as many game developers as possible. Two sources mentioned that Google plans to recruit 2,000 employees within five years to develop game products full-time for Stadia.
Google is a highly structured company, and the entire operating process has strict and clear institutional constraints. But correspondingly, game development is full of “randomness.” The whole process is quite messy, and participants with different academic backgrounds often use multiple software at the same time. Three sources pointed out that Google’s system even fundamentally hinders the progress of game development, such as prohibiting the use of certain game development software for security reasons.
Two sources pointed out that it is necessary toIt will take at least 3 to 5 years to truly realize a sophisticated gaming experience on Stadia, so it is impossible to have any first-party escort games when the service is initially launched. On the contrary, Stadia pulled several 3A masterpieces to support the scene, including “Final Fantasy XV”, “NBA 2K20”, “German Headquarters: New Blood” and so on. But the market does not seem to be interested in Google’s great determination.
Moreover, in the message board on Stadia, quite a number of users complained that the delay of streaming media service made Mortal Kombat 11, a fighting game with real-time response, almost impossible to play. Even if it is connected with a network cable, various devices will still experience serious delays. Staff at Stadia expressed concern about this and thought it would be difficult to solve such problems in a later official version. A source said that the department may need to conduct more tests on different network conditions and different equipment. Stadia has never announced the number of subscribers, but two sources said that it must have not reached the development goal within 2020.
The absence of the first-party game also made Stadia’s release promotion difficult. The studios that cooperate with it or Microsoft usually develop next-generation game works in advance to support the new generation of game consoles, thereby forming a good operating cycle. However, four sources mentioned that Stadia’s game development process has almost deviated from the category of “games”, mainly to solve various problems related to core streaming technology. Specifically, developers need to design prototypes, demonstrate prototype technology, verify Google’s cloud computing capabilities or State Share and other Stadia proprietary technologies (for players to trust or share video clips or screenshots of specific parts of the game).
A current employee of Stadia said, “For a long time, all game development work has been supporting Stadia as a core prerequisite, and all the features of this platform need to be fully considered.” For this, they had to invest in dedicated Among the long-term projects demonstrating Stadia technology. This can’t help but feel that Google’s funds are not used to support the game itself, but to support the Stadia platform through the game’s shell.
Finally, the Stadia game and entertainment team got the necessary software and personnel, and the prototype game development work was officially launched. The generous salary offered by Google and the so-called relaxed and pleasant working environment have indeed attracted a lot of fresh blood. Artists, producers, sound effects experts, programmers, etc. also hope to create unique and revolutionary game works here. There is no worries about being laid off at any time. The development team is here to study the basic look and feel of the new game and think about how to use the capacity advantages of Google’s ultra-large data center.
Recruitment was suspended after the epidemic, development work worsened
But then…the new crown epidemic broke out.
In April 2020, just one month after the Los Angeles studio announced its establishment, Google stopped recruitment. Pichai mentioned in internal news, “Now it is time to slow down personnel recruitment, focus resources on those Google’s strategic projects that are of vital importance to users and enterprises, and seize this wave of business success opportunities.” Sources Mentioned that games are clearly not part of this “strategic project”. One of them said, “The company stopped hiring, which is equivalent to stopping our ability to develop new content. At this time, the studio has not been established, so there is no way to start making games. Stopping here also means Google really doesn’t care about content production.”
Google stopped recruiting, and game developers naturally couldn’t advance their work normally. The prototype development lacked sufficient resources, and neither studio was able to operate at full capacity.
Three sources said that in the performance review, Google will evaluate game developers based on previous benchmarks established for user experience or visual designers. Yes, I don’t even think about whether the game is fun or not, and don’t care about the creative results. Faced with this dilemma of laymen leading experts, game developers can only explain their work culture as much as possible.
As time goes by, Google seems to feel a little bit and begins to provide developers with the appropriate tools and review process. But the newcomers were still late, and frustration permeated the two studios.
On January 27, 2021, Harrison sent an email to Stadia employees, announcing the new year’s “premium platform budget and investment quota.” In another rally, Harrison insisted that Google has the best game stream. Media technology. He also mentioned that the Stadia Gaming and Entertainment Division has “built a diverse and talented team and has made great strides in developing Stadia’s exclusive game lineup.” At the time, a clear departmental budget had not yet been released, but Harrison said it would soon Will be released, including the “SG&E strategy and 2021 development goals and main results” organized according to Google’s internal target framework.
But five days later, Harrison gathered members of Stadia’s gaming and entertainment department to announce that the department was about to close. In fact, Google lost interest in developing games before releasing them. But he emphasized that Google will do a good job in the aftermath of personnel, and members with relevant skills are expected to transfer to other internal positions.
The sources said that they were not particularly surprised by this result. It’s just ironic that Harrison just praised Stadia’s game and entertainment department for making “great progress” on the front foot, and being disbanded on the back foot.
HarriStudios are also aware of the huge challenges that come with developing first-party games. Similar to Google, Amazon relied on its wealth and deep pockets to hire top talent: Clint Hocking from Far Cry 2, Ian Vogel from Cyber Shock 2, John Smedley from Endless Mission, Kim Swift from Portal, etc. .
People are extremely excited about Amazon’s high salary and stable working environment. Several sources said that Amazon’s goal is to invest 1 billion franchise budget to promote its own cloud technology, proprietary game engine and Twitch streaming media service through games.
But sources emphasized that Amazon’s goal of “winning the game” and developing a 3A masterpiece is simply not feasible. Mike Frazzini, the head of Amazon Game Studios, didn’t even have any professional experience in games before.
Excessive expectations and Amazon’s own unique corporate culture (such as obsessed with internal software and using data to measure success) led to almost inevitable failures. Amazon cancelled at least three games: Project Nova, Breakaway and Crucible. The last game was cancelled even 5 months after it was first announced.
The development cost of 3A games is generally between 100 million and 200 million US dollars. The success of Blizzard’s “Overwatch” game originated from the previously failed massively multiplayer online role-playing game “Titan”. What’s worse, game design is not only like a labyrinth that consumes resources and energy, but it is also completely different from the product design that technology giants are familiar with.
A source said, “I think many companies lack understanding of the game development process. It seems that the executive team does not know how to make steady progress in this highly creative, interdisciplinary and complex field.”
The magic is that successful large-scale games can be born in any environment. Some masterpieces look beautiful, but are the most basic jumping movements smooth? Are you following the trend and making poor imitations of popular game types? Is the numerical design level unbalanced? Most importantly, is this game fun?
As a product between technical products and artwork, game development has no panacea. Every participant needs to give full play to their talents and inspiration here. This is a process that is both crazy and full of human charm. On this bumpy road, the technology giants have obviously stumbled.
Original link:
https://www.wired.com/story/google-stadia-games-entertainment-collapse/