A game-breaking bug was discovered in the Stadia version of Journey to the Savage Planet, making it impossible to get past the main menu screen. Stadia support told the user that discovered it that they would forward the issue to 505 Games, the original publisher of the game. But according to 505's customer support they can't fix it, as Google owns the developer Typhoon Studios and published the Stadia version.

Unfortunately Google fired its game developers in early February, including those working at Typhoon Studios - so when a fix is coming or if it will be fixed at all is unknown.

So is it a coincidence the game stops working shortly after the developers are fired, or did some developer break the game on their way out the door?

Games are worked on for long after release in many cases. Not a fan of this comment.

I would hope that it wasn't intentional sabotage because the people it hurts are fans who bought the game, not Google, which isn't going to make a lot of money off old Stadia releases. It seems likely it just broke and I wouldn't be shocked if it had nothing to do with the developer but instead related to changes in Stadia.

Regardless, the Stadia project is clearly very troubled and it seems unlikely at this point that it's going to turn around.

I didn't think Stadia was a good idea and I turned down a buddy pass at launch because I didn't want to get into that ecosystem, but I didn't think it would go quite this poorly when the tech is actually pretty good.

Meanwhile I can still play the digital copy of Hexic HD that came free with my Xbox 360 in 2008 on my Series X. And Geometry Wars Retro Evolved, which was my first digital purchase for the system.

Stadia should have just been a subscription service like Luna from the jump.

@toughshed: You're right, that was rude of me, I mostly added as I had seen some other people speculating about it.

If it was sabotage then all the power to them.

I don't mean to be too harsh on you at all but to me it just seems unfair to include that until anything was proven in that regard. Because like I said, so much work goes into games past "release" now.

Not to even moralize so much about the idea of that happening either but to me it is so much more likely just routine game development stuff.

@firepaw: I thought it was a fun joke don't let people deny you humour, the situation is somewhat funny.
And if someone did sabotage it he's probably laughing too.

@cikame: It's not funny for people who paid for a game but can't play it.

As bad as Stadia has been I have sympathy for the users, who didn't do anything wrong.

I don't think there's anything wrong with speculating about some unnamed developer, though. It's very bad (and possibly libelous) to name a particular person and accuse them of what is almost certainly an actionable and possibly a criminal act, without any evidence, but in this case there was no name given so nobody gets harmed by that kind of speculation.

As long as you don't identify an individual I'm not sure what the harm is.

Haha assuming criminal malice in developers who all just lost their jobs, so funny amirite guys hahaha

@swthompson: It's standard practice for someone to be the butt of a joke, in this case that someone was just a brief suggestion, hardly worth getting worked up over, don't think i'm taking losing a job lightly the situation is shit, it just feels like the internet is against you smiling sometimes.

Sounds more like Google messed up again. Big surprise, there.

Oh shit, didn't realize that Typhoon studio's was also dissolved alongside the Stadia Game & Entertainment Studios.

This tweet from it's founder aged like milk

@onemanarmyy: Kind of unfair to milk, which starts out good (if you're not lactose intolerant) and only gets bad over time.

That tweet was never good.

I still feel bad for the people at Typhoon studios (including Jerky McJerkface) because they lost their jobs through no fault of their own. People liked that game and getting acquired by Google seemed reasonable at the time.

Yeah you're right. Milk is darn good and i drink it everyday :)

@swthompson: Criminal malice? Developers are overworked, often underpaid and as evidenced here very often dissolved at the drop of a hat with little consideration for the continuity of their lives going forward. If they saw a significant bug in the game and decided to just leave it in there on their way out the door then good on 'em. Let Google handle the refunds.

Sounds like a big ol' Google problem, probably shouldn't have fired the folks that make your games work? Good on 505 games for not bailing Google out, this whole thing's their mess and they should be the ones to fix it.