It’s the final end of an era: Former Stadia boss Phil Harrison has left Google
Harrison joined Google in 2018 to head up its cloud gaming initiative.
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It was over, but now it’sreallyover: ABusiness Insiderreport says Phil Harrison, the former PlayStation and Xbox executive who joined Google in 2018 to head up its Stadia gaming platform, has left the company.
Harrison’s departure is hardly surprising. Despite big promises—overpromising, in the opinion of Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick—and Google’s financial muscle, Stadia never found its footing, much less delivered on its early promise. The first real sign of trouble appeared in February 2021 when Googleclosed its internal game development studio, leading to the departure of its high profile leader Jade Raymond. Otherexecutivesandemployeesfollowed shortly after.
Google insisted a few months later that Stadia was “alive and well,” but still failed to do anything interesting with it; in July 2022 itdenied a rumorthat Stadia was shutting down, and then two months later,shut it down. In March of this year, a plan to switch Stadia to a licensed streaming platform was alsoscrapped.
The Business Insider report says Harrison left Google in January, around the time that Google was officially closed. HisLinkedInpage, however, indicates that he stuck around until April 2023. Whatever the case, this would seem to put the final nail in Stadia’s coffin—a definitive end to an initiative that in its early days looked like it might have the potential tochange gaming forever.
Harrison hasn’t yet commented publicly on his reported departure from Google or what he plans to get up to next. I’ve reached out to Google for comment and will update if I receive a reply.
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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill.Lotsof Henry Cavill.
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