Google Stadia vice president and general manager Phil Harrison praised the company’s first-party studios for making “great progress,” before shutting them down a few days later.
That’s according to a new report from Kotaku, which has obtained an email sent by Harrison to Stadia development teams on January 27 — five days before Google announced plans to pivot away from internal game development on February 1.
“[Stadia Games and Entertainment] (SG&E) has made great progress building a diverse and talented team and establishing a strong lineup of Stadia exclusive games,” reads Harrison’s email. “We will confirm the SG&E investment envelope shortly, which will, in turn, inform the SG&E strategy and 2021 [objectives and key results].”
The email would have landed in the inbox of staff members less than a week before Google announced it would be winding down SG&E focus on “Stadia’s future as a platform,” explaining it would be looking to work with third-party developers and publishers rather than investing in its own titles.
Ultimately, it’s a receipt that suggests Google’s handling of the situation was messy at best, and backs up an earlier report from Kotaku that claims Stadia devs found out about the closure at the very last minute.