Google Stadia acquires Journey to the Savage Planet studio

Google has announced the acquisition of Journey to the Savage Planet developer Typhoon Studios.

The Montreal-based company, which was formed by former Ubisoft developers Reid Schneider and Alex Hutchinson, will join the Stadia Games and Entertainment studio based in Montreal and led by Sébastien Puel.

Typhoon is preparing to release its debut game, first-person adventure and exploration title Journey to the Savage Planet, for multiple platforms on January 28, a plan that won’t be affected by the acquisition.

The title was developed with a team of about 25 people in under two years, according to Jade Raymond, who’s in charge of Stadia’s first-party games production.

“It’s a small indie studio but built by industry veterans who shipped a lot of your favorite triple-A,” she told VentureBeat.

“We’re super excited to be able to be working with this crew because they’re a team that has done amazing work on amazing games. They worked on everything from Batman to Assassin’s Creed. And the original Splinter Cell, which Reid led as executive producer.”

Hutchinson was creative director on Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 4, and lead designer on EA‘s ambitious Spore.

“This will give us a big head start in our Montreal studio in terms of having a team that’s ready to really push innovation,” Raymond said. “It’s our very first first-party studio that will help drive exclusive games for Stadia.”

Schneider said: “One thing that’s really exciting to the team is the opportunities to build something really innovative and really new and focused on one awesome platform.

“The most exciting thing from my point of view is that, with the cloud, the new technology allows us to think at a bigger scale than we had before. The opportunity space is so much bigger.”

Google also recently hired a group of senior Assassin’s Creed developers for its new Stadia games studio.

Raymond has previously said the company will deliver some “exciting” exclusive content each year, but that it may take several years before a “big bet” from a first-party studio pays off.

Stadia launched in 14 markets on November 19. The platform arrived with several missing features which are being added as and when they’re ready.