Sony Santa Monica boss Shannon Studstill has been poached by Google to lead a new Stadia development studio in Playa Vista. The industry veteran, who helmed the team which would go on to produce 2018’s undisputed Game of the Year in God of War, will recruit a group responsible for creating “exclusive games” for the embattled streaming service.
According to ex-Ubisoft boss Jade Raymond, these titles will boast “new gameplay mechanics, creative ways to play together, and unique interaction models that we’re just starting to explore”. She continued: “The creative possibilities are limitless. But we can’t build those experiences without a talented team of game designers, artists, and storytellers.”
Speaking of Studstill in particular, Raymond said: “She has an extensive background in product development and creative leadership, but most importantly, she’s a visionary who, as the Studio Director, will lead and inspire the Playa Vista teams. We are thrilled to welcome her to the Stadia family.”
Of course, it’s well documented that Google Stadia has got off to a slow start, with a trickle of new releases hitting the service since it debuted several months ago. Given that Studstill is yet to even build her team, it’ll be a while before we see the fruits of her labour. It’ll be interesting to see whether the service still exists once the Playa Vista team is ready to release.
[source blog.google]
Comments 45
Best wishes and good luck in your new role, Shannon.
Must have been one heck of a pay raise to consider working as the one patching holes on a sinking ship.
Best of luck to her and her career, though! I hope we are all proven wrong.
Hopefully the basic version of Stadia arrives before this game so I can play it without making a further commitment to the platform.
Yeah let's hope for her sake that stadia will still be around in the next 2 years...
As seen in the documentary Raising Kratos, she was really key to God of War (2018) coming together in the way it did through her persistence and her promotion of Barlog's vision. It's a very sad loss for Sony Santa Monica. I wish her the best in her new role.
From Sony Santa Monica to.... Stadia??? Now that's a huge downgrade right there.
Sad news tbh, she took the decision to call back Cory Barlog, and we all know how that ended for God of War 2018. I hope Sony can keep the cool in the studio and keep Cory happy, in the other hand best of luck for Shannon, at least Google is committed with Stadia after all.
Jym, Hermen, what are you guys up to???? We need answers!!!!
I really wonder how much was cash and how much was her getting burned out after making GoW.
But... Why though! 🤔😑
Stadia may be the future, but it’s not the present, much less the near future. And baring onto the scene, buying up timed exclusivity deals, isn’t the way to endear yourself to gamers at large.
what will she do next year when Stadia shuts down because no one is using it?
(JK.....kinda i wish her well but i still think Stadia is going to bomb)
Why she would jump onto a sinking ship is beyond me
Like a Liverpool player leaving to play for 2nd division. Hope money is worth it
Lmao!! Well that wasn’t a very wise career move!
Ouch, that's not a good career choice I think, I don't think stadia will be around anymore after people can buy ps5 games with streaming, and there's project xcloud too. The streaming solutions with console/hardware as a backup is the best option right now.
sad to see stadia executives bribing and stealing talent away from successful studios. these individuas would have served the industry better working for sony, nintendo or microsoft. cannot see a future where google finds success with stadia. but sure, this was her own choice — it might be a regrettable one indeed.
Well, i really hope the pay is worth it.
Best of luck to her!
@Porco ....bribing? I think you mean ‘offering more money’ which is generally the method employed by companies to encourage workers.
Best of luck I guess, she's gonna need it.
Fun Stadia fact: Destiny 2 on Stadia currently has 0% player activity on the Charlemagne Warmind server that tracks Destiny stats on all platforms in real time. Hilarious.
https://warmind.io/activity
Money talks, I guess. Hope she makes the best of it all the same.
Ikumi Nakamura to the rescue ?
She looked quite pally with Cory Balrog not so long ago !!
@3MonthBeef - I saw the metrics, obviously people are playing but not enough to round up to a single % of overall activity. Go back in 3 hours, days or weeks and it won't be any different.
@GamingFan4Lyf no you don’t, you want to be right 😉
She did not, in fact, stand still.
they could buy Rockstar Games for all I care I will still not use the service.
Must have went for the $ ?
@Neolit Its a big payout and get too lead her own team i have too agree.
Best of luck to her, she seems like a genuinely cool person. As far as PlayStation, it's another blow to the brand. A lot of people who helped make the PS4 what it is (and in some cases, people who's time stretched back to making the brand itself what it is) have left Sony or one of its affiliated studios this gen. Not sure that's a good thing for the future.
GeForce NOW makes stadia look like a School Project.
Good luck to her... but She better save some of the cash they definitely gave her.
I get that it was very stressful working at Santa Monica, but why join a ship that has already sunk?
Talk about going backwards.
@Shepard93n7 SSM has always been great no matter who works there. Jaffe left and they got better. No big deal at all. Just like Amy leaving ND.
@Gamer83 Why do people make these ridiculous comments? People leave companies everyday and people have left Sony since they were estsblished way before PS existed. No one is irreplaceable. You didn't even know who she was before this LOL. Over dramatic. Sony and SSM will continue to be fine as always.
@Flopsy None of these people ever heard of her but suddeny its a huge deal. They didn't know who David Jaffe and Cory Barlog were. The two who created the series and came up with the story, concept and gameplay. That's one annoying thing about the internet. The creator of PS has been gone since PS3 yet people act like someone that they never heard of leaving is a big deal.
@GodGamer
Actually I knew well before this who she was, so take your bs elsewhere.
Well, Google is playing its cards. It has so much money that it can afford lots of years until Stadia hits.
It scares me though. Google is everywhere. I can't even access a result of a search directly anymore, they redirect us to caches in their own servers. Any business domain they're not in yet, they purchase a company that is. I love PlayStation and Nintendo; for their sake and ours, I hope Stadia fails.
@Gamer83 Doesn"t matter. She is replaceable and it will not have a negative impact on SSM like you are claiming which is the point. You didn't know who she was til this game and that's a fact. As I said, people leave companies all the time. Its a part of the industry so no big deal. Platinim left Capcom yet Capcom is doing great with only a few good franchises. Drama queen LOL.
Losing Shannon is a big loss but Yumi Yang was just as important to getting God of War done. She'll do a great job as new head of studio.
This is like going from being the captain of a Carnival ship and leaving to become the captain of the Titanic for godsakes...
Hopefully Google shuts Stadia and just makes games for established platforms so people actually get the choice to play...
This is like leaving Liverpool to sign for Norwich.
Good luck, you're going to need it.
Stadia is definitely going to bomb.
@GodGamer I think it's not a huge deal because of who she is, but rather the decision thats been made.
So it's a big deal, probably for the wrong reasons.
Oh look!
Exclusive content matters.
@kyleforrester87 Part of me does want to be right, and another part of me doesn't want to be right.
I really don't like the idea of streaming-only purchase. I can support digital-only purchases, but streaming-only is harder to stomach. I like the idea of steaming being complimentary to a local experience. Stadia has yet to convince me otherwise.
If it wasn't for the ability to stream games, I would NEVER buy an Xbox One or PS4 game because I just wouldn't have time to game on those systems - I pretty much rely on the Xbox App and Remote Play app on my Surface Book 2 in order to play my Xbox One X and PS4 Pro respectively. Granted, I am wireless connecting to the same router which the two consoles maintain a hard-wired connection; but I still rely on streaming the majority of the time and it works very well.
I find that Nvidia Now is way better than Google Stadia. Yes, Nvidia Now is limited to 1080p, but it uses games you already own since it links to your Steam/Epic Store account. Plus, the games available can run at Max PC settings - where Stadia seems to keep it's games more targeted towards console settings (from what I gathered from Digital Foundry).
That isn't to say that Nvidia Now is perfect. The free version can have potential wait times and limits your gaming session to 1 hour (but you can always use that time to take a small break and then reconnect). The Premium version gives you access to RTX Cores (to check out that sweet, sweet ray tracing), priority access, and allows longer gaming sessions (up to several hours).
Right now you can get the Premium version of Nvidia Now for free for 90-days (good time to try out Quake 2 RTX on Steam since it's a free download) - afterwards it would only cost $5/mo.
Project xCloud is right around the corner, too. I do believe Microsoft has said that xCloud access will be included with Game Pass Ultimate. $14.99/mo for Game Pass Ultimate for access to a ton of games for PC, Xbox, and xCloud - plus xCloud also lets your Xbox become your streaming server to continue playing whatever game is either currently in your disc drive or installed on the machine (credit to Sony for doing this first with Remote Play App). That's kind of a no-brainer there.
Now, I do have Verizon Fios Gigabit, so I have the bandwidth to properly run streaming games without hiccup. I understand that not everyone is that fortunate. Which is the true enemy of streaming right now.
That being said, It's not unheard of to see gaming technology push quicker adoption of other technology. It didn't take long before HDTV's took over as the industry standard after the Xbox 360 and PS3 came around. Maybe better streaming services will help push more affordable and accessible high-bandwidth internet to allow for stream-only services to be more viable.
@GamingFan4Lyf Fair response - it is as much a technological hurdle as it is a shift in attitude, I think it's inevitable we'll see gradual changes to both. Things don't look great for Stadia at the moment but I think it really depends if they are going to play the long game or not. You'd think they have the money to do so.
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