Google Stadia’s director of games has left for Google Cloud

Google’s cloud gaming service Stadia appears to have lost another video game industry veteran – sort of. Jack Buser, director of games at Stadia and former director of PlayStation, joins the company’s Google Cloud division to lead “gaming solutions,” according to a ZDNet report.

Google Confirms Buser Is Leaving Stadia Group For Google Cloud, Providing This Statement To The edge:

Gaming is an extremely important vertical sector at Google and we are seeing tremendous momentum across all products and services. Jack’s new role will allow us to better deliver the best of Google to customers across our Cloud, Stadia, YouTube, and more. Stadia continues to be led by CEO Phil Harrison, and Stadia’s business development and partner management teams will continue to be led by Michael Abbattista, who took over in 2020.

While it’s easy to think that Google is just trying to synergistically lose Stadia for Google’s bigger gaming goals, it could make a lot of sense for Stadia’s future. As I wrote in February when the company shut down its own game studios, the handwriting is on the wall – Stadia boss Phil Harrison has sent a clear message that Stadia’s future is on the wall. ‘run as “a technology platform for industry partners”, not as a game Netflix or a place to create your own breakthrough games.

And now it looks like Buser is going to be working on this global technology platform for Google’s partners, which it already sells as Google Cloud.

If Google ultimately decides to add Stadia to its Google graveyard, it might be easier to swallow if the company manages to make it a different kind of business first. But it could also be that Google has decided to invest more, not less in gaming, by taking another path. ZDNet quotes a Google Cloud spokesperson that gaming “is one of the key verticals we invest in”, and writes that the idea behind Buser’s decision “is to connect with gamers through a holistic sequel of products and services “.

“The tech giant could offer, for example, end-to-end collaboration solutions that include YouTube as a streaming partner for live broadcasts or esports events. ZDNet adds.

It reminds me in part of the confidential 70-page Google document that we dug up from the Epic vs. Apple trial last month, which outlines a plan to make Google “the world’s largest gaming platform” by 2025, starting by bringing around 100 Android games to Windows PCs, then later expanding to Macs , smart screens and televisions, all powered by cloud services from Google. The document suggested that cloud gaming could also be part of this vision, and that the platform would also be “super-premium” games, with Shadow of the Tomb Raider as a representative example.

Buser has a lot of experience trying to attract premium games from both Google and Sony, where he ran Sony’s own cloud gaming service PlayStation Now, and soon he might have a more compelling pitch to introduce. this games.

While Stadia has had some serious struggles, it has also tried to make the service more attractive, recently slashing its revenue share to attract more developers, adding a direct touchscreen control option, and finally bringing Stadia to Chromecast with Google TV. .