Google's ambitions of being a major game publisher are over almost before they even started. The technology giant is shutting down the studios it established in Montreal and Los Angeles to create Stadia exclusive games, affecting around 150 staff, while EA and Ubisoft veteran Jade Raymond, who had been hired to lead those efforts, is leaving the company.
It's easy, and indeed tempting, to pour scorn on Google for this whole debacle, not least since it's impacted the careers of so many development staff. But the overriding sentiment in most commentary I've read or heard about this is: "well, duh." Of course Google did this. Google was always going to do this. It was only ever a question of when, not if.
That's a hard sentiment to disagree with. Google's track record of abandoning products and services that don't immediately succeed is legendary, after all -- but the legend isn't entirely correct in its framing. Google may sometimes look like a kid on a Christmas morning sugar rush, bouncing constantly to new toys, leaving the ones it was excited about only minutes ago forgotten under the sofa, but it is also perfectly capable of knuckling down and focusing on building long-term value. It just doesn't know how to do that -- or doesn't care to do that -- in any business that involves selling things to consumers.

Google's shutdowns relegate streaming to "gaming of the gaps" | Opinion | GamesIndustry.biz