Google Stadia reportedly cancelled numerous projects, including a pitch for Hideo Kojima’s episodic horror game. However, the company went on to deny it was in talks with the famous game designer.
VGC published a report a few days ago, touching on dozens of projects cancelled by Google Stadia. The list included potential games from Hideo Kojima, Yu Suzuki, as well as a Journey to the Savage Planet sequel.
All the cancellations allegedly happened after Google shut down Stadia’s internal game studios amid plans to “refocus” its streaming service. Later on, it’s been revealed that employees found out about the company decision just days after being praised for “great progress.”
According to a VGC report, some of the cancelled games were at various stages of development. Typhoon, which was purchased by Google last year, had been “in full production” on a sequel to Journey to the Savage Planet. Francois Pelland, a former producer of Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell, led the development of a multiplayer game Frontier.
As for Hideo Kojima’s project, VGC was told that it has been pitched as an episodic horror game. Kojima Productions reportedly wanted to “innovate in the cloud gaming space.” However, Stadia general manager Phil Harrison turned down the proposal last year.
On February 28, Google responded to the report, saying it was “inaccurate and reported hearsay as fact.” The company told GamesRadar+ that it “doesn’t have anything, nor have announced anything, with Kojima or Yu Suzuki.”
“We talk to partners all the time in situations that don’t result in a project or even a proposal. This is very common,” a Stadia spokesperson later told VGC. “Speculating that two parties that speak regularly in this industry leads to proposals or otherwise, is inaccurate.”
It is worth noting that last summer, Kojima revealed that his major project got cancelled. “I’m pretty pissed, but that’s the games industry for you,” he said in an interview with Japanese site Livedoor.
Bloomberg also published a new report on the problems that Google faced while developing Stadia. The company spent “tens of millions of dollars” to bring games like Red Dead Redemption 2 to their platform, while also choosing a wrong business model in general.