Google has reportedly recruited a number of former senior Assassin’s Creed developers to join its new first-party games studio in Montreal, Canada.
According to a report by VGC, the streaming platform’s first studio – headed, of course, by former EA and Ubisoft executive Jade Raymond – has employed former Assassin’s Creed executive producer Sébastien Puel, who’s joined Google as director-general of the new outfit, and Francois Pelland, who’s been appointed head of production for Google’s first-party game strategy. Watch Dogs’ art director, Mathieu Leduc, has also joined Google Stadia as an art director.
Puel worked on the Assassin’s Creed franchise from its second game, Assassin’s Creed 2, all the way up until Assassin’s Creed Unity. Pelland, on the other hand, was employed at Ubisoft Quebec as executive director of development where he worked on games like Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and South Park: The Fractured but Whole.
In other Stadia news, Google recently responded to criticism that its Stadia streaming service is failing to meet consumer expectations after it was advertised that all Stadia games at launch would support 4K. The company said it put the onus on developers to “continue to improve their games on Stadia”.
Google recently acknowledged “an issue” delayed the dissemination of invitation codes to early adopters of its streaming service, Stadia, which officially launched last week. In some cases, players have already received their packs but were unable to use it without the invitation code.
Though the issue has purportedly only affected “a small fraction” of preorders, a number of customers reported that despite ordering the Founders’ Edition when preorders went live, orders were not shipped in order and they had yet to receive correspondence from Google inviting them to register their gamertag/nickname several days after launch – even though this was widely advertised as a perk of the Founder’s Edition.
Just days before its launch, Google confirmed a number of key features originally detailed to early adopters of Google’s streaming subscription service will now be delayed. Further to a Reddit AMA with Google’s Andrey Doronichev and Beri Lee, it appears Stadia’s Founder’s Edition will now launch without achievement notifications, family share, or 4K streaming for PC. It’s also been confirmed that the much-publicised Buddy Pass – which enables players to gift access to a friend – will be delayed for approximately three months.
