Google wants to attract indie developers to Stadia with Makers program

Google has announced the Stadia Makers program, designed to help independent game makers create games for its streaming service Stadia. Google is collaborating with game platform maker Unity for this.

With the Stadia Makers program, Google is targeting indie game developers who are developing their title with Unity 2019.3 or later versions and want to release in 2020 or 2021. Google does not aim for exclusivity, but in its announcement points out the advantages of releasing games on different platforms. Program participants are eligible for up to five development systems and receive technical support from Unity.

The amount of games from Stadia is still limited and there are few indie games compared to other platforms. In early March, Business Insider drew criticism from independent game studios that Google would offer too little money. Google promises that the offer will be expanded by 120 games this year.

Google now reports that it was mainly organizational and technical obstacles that limited the expansion. So many studios would have signed up to participate in Stadia that it was not possible to work with all of them. “Now a few months later, we’ve improved our tools and started new collaborations that allow us to collaborate more with independent studios.”