Phil Harrison, general manager of Google Stadia has resigned from the company in the wake of the cloud gaming service’s shutdown earlier this year.
His resignation was reported by Business Insider earlier today but no official comment on the matter has been made by either Google or Harrison, who joined the company in 2018. The news of his resignation is corroborated by his LinkedIn account which lists that his time at Google came to an end this month.
Reports suggest though that Harrison’s resignation in fact came far earlier in the year and followed the final days of Google Stadia in January. Harrison directly oversaw the development of Google Stadia and steered it through a rocky launch period which had gained the service an air of notoriety due to its subscription-based service and lack of features that it struggled to overcome.
The streaming service was envisioned as a potential major player in the current climate with plans in place to collaborate with heavy hitters like Hideo Kojima for exclusive titles. Deals rarely came to fruition though, and in 2021, Harrison made the announcement that Google had put a stop to internal development.
Not long after, an announcement penned by Harrison on Stadia’s official blog marked the end of the service due to its poor performance:
It (Stadia) hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected so we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service
Phil Harrison via The Keyword
There’s been no indication of what’s next for Harrison who’s previously held senior roles at both Sony and Microsoft. Google on the other hand appears to be stepping away from gaming altogether after it axed its white-label streaming service.
Do you think Phil Harrison needed to go?
