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Google allegedly spent tens of millions of dollars on AAA ports for Stadia

Google looked to woo large publishers to get titles alike Red Dead Redemption II on the service.
Ben Lyons Senior Editor 2 March 2021

The woes of Google Stadia never seem to cease. We've seen reports of the first party studios being closed, and even lawsuits being filed against the platform and certain developers attached to it. Now, a new report by Bloomberg has delved into some of the issues Stadia has faced and as a part of it, has stated that Google allegedly spent tens of millions of dollars on bringing AAA ports to the service.

According to the report by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Google "wooed" large publishers, including Ubisoft and Take Two Interactive, and spent "tens of millions of dollars to get games like Red Dead Redemption II on Stadia," shocking the developers of the titles.

The report further delves into some other issues Stadia has faced, particularly around launch, when the lack of interest in its $130 Founder's Edition meant that Google had a surplus of Stadia controllers, and ultimately ended up giving them away for free last year.

For more Stadia news, be sure to check out our report on the Journey to the Savage Planet game breaking bug that took three weeks to solve following the firing of the developers.

Senior Editor Ben was a Senior Editor at Gamereactor UK. When he wasn’t writing, editing or filming for Gamereactor, he could usually be found playing an FPS or getting lost in a sprawling RPG.
Full profile Gamereactor author since October 2020 · 18,588 published articles
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