Former Stadia head Phil Harrison has reportedly left Google

The VP seems to have left following Stadia’s downturn

Phil Harrison, the former head of Stadia at Google, has reportedly left the company.

A new report from Business Insider said that Harrison left Google around the time when it shut down the Stadia streaming service. Though no official statement’s been made as of this writing, Harrison’s LinkedIn does reflect the change, with his departure from Google marked at April 2023.

Harrison has been around the games industry for quite a while, working at both Sony and Microsoft over the years. He joined Google in 2018, taking the lead on the company’s efforts to start up the cloud streaming service Stadia. Harrison even took the stage at GDC 2019 to unveil this vision for a streaming future.

Of course, we all remember how Stadia turned out. In 2021, Google shut down its internal development projects for Stadia, saying it would not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from its internal development team. At the time, Harrison cited the “exponentially” rising costs of creating “best-in-class games from the ground up.”

Then, a year later, Google officially closed the curtain on Stadia. All hardware purchases made through the Google Store would be refunded, and in January of this year, the service officially shuttered. Harrison wrote in a blog post that the technology hadn’t “gained the traction with users” that Google expected.

The clouds set

There’s been no formal announcement, and no indication of what may be next for Harrison. As for Stadia, well, that’s just about through.

Google recently told Axios in an interview that it’s been selling a bundle of services to publishers, moving into the role of tech partner for live-service publishers.