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Bethesda Acquisition by Microsoft Factored Into Stadia Studios Shutdown

pasterpl

Member
Google Stadia's Phil Harrison reportedly states that Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda played a role in shutting down Stadia studios.

Google's announcement that it would be shutting down its Stadia game development studios shocked the industry. It was just two years ago that Stadia announced the actualization of these studios, meaning they haven't had much time to put together their first games. The decision from Google has left many questioning why, though the Stadia team has offered little in reply. One apparent reason, according to reporting from a Stadia internal Q&A, was Bethesda.

This past Thursday, Google Stadia GM Phil Harrison did a Q&A with Stadia staff regarding the decision to shut down Stadia's game development teams. Kotaku has reported on some of Harrison's responses. While Harrison was said to be very coy regarding the reasons for the decision, one specific thing he mentioned was Microsoft's ongoing acquisition of ZeniMax Media, which includes Bethesda, id Software, MachineGames, and other subsidiaries.

How Microsoft's Bethesda acquisition factored into Stadia's game development efforts wasn't explained, it seems. All Harrison is reported to have said is that Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda and its ongoing "buying spree" of other studios was a factor in Stadia's decision. Kotaku doesn't provide any further context for Harrison's response. It doesn't even provide a direct quote. Yet if Harrison was willing to say it, then it must have been important.

A key detail to acknowledge is that Microsoft's xCloud game streaming service is perhaps Google's biggest competition for Google Stadia. While Google Stadia wasn't explicitly creating games to offer a competitive selection of exclusives, it's almost certainly a factor. After all, Microsoft has a diverse range of platform-exclusive games that will be available on xCloud, making it that much more attractive to potential cloud gaming subscribers.

As for how Microsoft's acquisitions played into this competition between the companies, one can only guess. Perhaps Google was also pursuing the ZeniMax Media/Bethesda acquisitionand missing out severely impacted its plans for first-party game development. Perhaps the Bethesda acquisition made Google believe it couldn't compete based on exclusive games. Or perhaps Google believed getting Bethesda itself was the only way to bring its in-house game development to a level of success worth supporting.

Whatever the reason, Google has already pulled the plug on its Stadia game development teams. There's no reversing course now. And what that decision means for the future of Google Stadia and cloud gaming in general remains to be seen. But at the very least, there are now hundreds of former Stadia developers with uncertain futures who believed Google and Stadia would be there for them. The entire situation is unfortunate.

https://gamerant.com/stadia-studios-shutdown-microsoft-bethesda-acquisition-factor/

Just to clarify, this article is from 2021 when stadia started shutting down internal studios.
 
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skit_data

Member
This article is old but may prove to be interesting for regulators in regards to the ABK-acquisition.

Edit: Not saying that MS is the reason for Stadias demise (even if Google might wanna paint it that way) but its directly correlated to the high barriers of entry into the market referenced by regulators.
 
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Krappadizzle

Gold Member
Phil Spencer...You lil' Devil you...

giphy.gif
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Weird story, wouldn’t Bethesda games be temporary exclusive anyway without the MS acquisition? Since they were, you know, moneyhatted by Sony?

It’s not like they would have been on Stadia anyway.
Ghostwire and Deathloop both launched on PC and PS5 at the same time (y)

Speculation but MS could have blocked the launch for Stadia as it’s a competitive cloud platform for all we know.
 
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GhostOfTsu

Banned
MS is killing the competition. That's their MO. What else is new?
Weird story, wouldn’t Bethesda games be temporary exclusive anyway without the MS acquisition? Since they were, you know, moneyhatted by Sony?

It’s not like they would have been on Stadia anyway.
Phil Spencer directly named Google when he went on his shopping spree and now Phil Harrison says they gave up on Stadia because of MS so yes it's all related. They had clauses to block Stadia in their contracts with publishers I'm sure.
 
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Little Chicken

Gold Member
What a load of shit, pure clickbait trash. There isn't even a direct quote from Harrison.

List of Bethesda games on Stadia:

Doom
Doom 64
Doom Eternal
Elder Scrolls Online: Standard Edition
RAGE 2
Wolfenstein Youngblood

I'm sure they were reeling at possibly losing access to this marvelously curated catalogue 🚮

Edit: Is this just recycled from Feb 2021? https://www.neogaf.com/threads/micr...easons-why-google-closed-its-studios.1591901/
 
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oldergamer

Member
MS is killing the competition. That's their MO. What else is new?

Phil Spencer directly named Google when he went on his shopping spree and now Phil Harrison says they gave up on Stadia because of MS so yes it's all related. They had clauses to block Stadia in their contracts with publishers I'm sure.
What clauses? where's the proof dude? You can't just claim something & pull from tales from your ass.
 
Phil Spencer did say the Amazon and Google were the actual competition. I’m sure it was just PR but it will kinda haunt them back now.

If Google and Amazon aren't investing into the market by buying publishers, why is Microsoft doing it? That's the kind of question the regulators are going to start pontificating. What will the scapegoat transform into that doesn't involve Sony?

What clauses? where's the proof dude? You can't just claim something & pull from tales from your ass.

Why not? People have claimed the same thing with Sony "shutting out" GamePass for ALL 3P games just by looking at the leaked RE: Village documents...which were for a game Sony invested co-marketing rights into.

But that last part always gets ignored, funny that.
 
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oldergamer

Member
Stadia died for a single reason (well more then one but this was the biggest). It targeted the WRONG demographics.

They wanted hardcore gamers to buy in and play on stadia. meanwhile hardcore gamers pay for high priced video cards and hardware to play games on PC. Why would you pay to stream when you could pay to own and play locally? There was little to no benefit to playing on stadia.

The other issues like it using a crazy amount of bandwidth, not having a great game selection, only useable on PC. Meanwhile competing systems allowed play on a large range of devices, targeted casual gamers, and were included with other features for value.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Phil Harrison is full of shit :messenger_tears_of_joy:

MS acquired Bethesda a little under a year after Stadia launched. If 1 publisher acquisition just one year after your platform's launch is one of the key reasons the platform failed, it wasn't destined to be a success in the first place. Not to mention Stadia still got almost all major Bethesda games, except Deathloop and Ghostwire maybe but those were locked elsewhere.
 
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reksveks

Member
If Google and Amazon aren't investing into the market by buying publishers, why is Microsoft doing it?
Cause Google wasn't really that invested in it or at least didn't want the employee count that would be involved in it.

Microsoft are doing it cause its a good investment for them, it doesn't mean it's a good investment for Google.

Google has some of the best profit margins in the world.
 
Phil Harrison is full of shit :messenger_tears_of_joy:

MS acquired Bethesda a little under a year after Stadia launched. If 1 publisher acquisition just one year after your platform's launch is one of the key reasons the platform failed, it wasn't destined to be a success in the first place. Not to mention Stadia still got almost all major Bethesda games, except Deathloop and Ghostwire maybe but those were locked elsewhere.
Stadia would have failed with or without any acquisitions.
 

johnjohn

Member
Yes, Bethesda games are what would have saved Stadia lol... If anything this tells me that Google wanted to acquire Bethesda for exclusive content. MS saved Bethesda games from being streaming only, thanks Phil.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Stadia would have failed with or without any acquisitions.

This 'news' just hours after the revelation that Harrison/Stadia turned down an exclusive Kojima project is just proof of what you've said. They wanted Stadia to only have multiplayer focused games and who knows how many publishers/developers they turned down besides Kojima for that.
 
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I still think Stadia had the best cloud streaming service, but Xbox has improved substantially. Coinciding with the upgraded hardware (series blades.) But google was just dumb to go all in on streaming alone. Should have developed some sort of dedicated hardware. Phil said it best stating cloud is just an option.
 

GhostOfTsu

Banned
What clauses? where's the proof dude? You can't just claim something & pull from tales from your ass.
I said IMO. Stadia was such a big threat according to Phil so I guess that would be standard. I'm not sure why you disagree so hard. It's really not far-fetched to think that.

Besides, you guys had one contract from REVillage and that was enough to confirm Sony blocks every single game from GP. No proof was ever asked.
Not to mention Stadia still got almost all major Bethesda games
Those contracts were already made before MS acquired Bethesda. They had lots of games on PS+/Now too.
 
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Deerock71

Member
what point are you trying to make sorry? that if something isn’t essential for you to live you are happy for the market to be fixed with no competition?
The case has not been made that Microsoft killed Stadia. Google launched a shitty product and the market didn't like it from the start.
 
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