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Google bought a game development studio that has only 1 game known to be in production and Google isn't saying whether it will be available on Stadia

Dec 24, 2019, 00:12 IST
  • Google just revealed a surprise acquisition: A Canadian video game development studio named Typhoon Studios.
  • The purchase is intended to bolster Google's gaming efforts with Google Stadia, the company's video game streaming platform that launched in November. But it's an odd choice for Google.
  • The only game the Typhoon is known to be working on, "Journey to the Savage Planet," was not slated to be available on Stadia when it's released in 2020.
  • Google told Business Insider it isn't announcing "whether the title will come to Stadia."
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google revealed a surprising acquisition last last week: A small Canadian video game development firm named Typhoon Studios.

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The deal is directly tied to Google's new gaming service, Google Stadia, and is intended to bolster the company's gaming portfolio.

"The Typhoon team will be joining our first Stadia Games and Entertainment studio that is based in Montreal and led by Sébastien Puel," Google VP and leader of Stadia Games & Entertainment, Jade Raymond, said in a statement published on Friday.

Typhoon Studios is a small, relatively new studio that was founded by a gaggle of video game industry veterans in 2017. The studio has yet to produce a game, though it is currently developing "Journey to the Savage Planet" - a first-person adventure game set on an alien planet.

It's expected to launch in 2020, and was originally announced as coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC:

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And now, in addition to those platforms, it's also headed to Google Stadia - presumably, at least.

"Typhoon Studios will continue to work on the launch of 'Journey to the Savage Planet' for multiple platforms on January 28, 2020," Raymond said in the announcement. "Meanwhile, our priority will be on integrating the team from Typhoon Studios into Stadia Games and Entertainment."

Oddly, the statement said nothing about "Journey to the Savage Planet" and Stadia. So we followed up and asked Google and the game's publisher, 505 Games.

"We haven't made any announcements on whether the title will come to Stadia," a Google spokesperson told Business Insider. 505 Games did not respond.

That makes Google's acquisition of Typhoon Studios is a curious choice.

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The firm has yet to produce a game, it's relatively small (around 30 people), and is more or less unknown in the world of gaming. If the purchase is intended to push back against the criticisms of Stadia - primarily that the service lacks games and feels underdone - it's not clear how effective it will be.

Moreover, Stadia officially launched back in November, and game development takes time. If Google is just buying this studio right now, the first fruits of that acquisition are likely months if not years away.

Contrast this with Microsoft's approach with the new Xbox - the company purchased over a dozen different game studios across the past several years, and now those studios are years deep in development on new games for the next Xbox generation.

One of those studios, Ninja Theory, was responsible for one of the first major next-gen Xbox game to be revealed - "Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2." But it assuredly took years of work before that project was ready to be teased.

In the case of Google's acquisition of Typhoon Studios, the timing is especially curious.

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