[UPDATE: A Patch to fix problems with Journey to the Savage Planet has now gone live.]
On February 1, Google announced that it would be closing Stadia Games and Entertainment (SG&E,) its internal video game development studio created to create games exclusively for Google Stadia. The studio, led by ex-Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond, was created to develop exclusives for Google's Stadia cloud streaming service in 2019. In late 2019 Google acquired Typhoon Studios, the team behind co-op shooter Journey to the Savage Planet. On the same day that Google announced the closure of the studio, Typhoon launched Journey to the Savage Planet on Google Stadia. Unfortunately, the game was broken at launch, and now there is no developer left to patch the game.
While the game finally reached Stadia earlier this month, Reddit user u/lordubuntu made a post pointing out that the game has a significant issue with crashing on the main menu, prohibiting players from accessing the game itself. This is especially significant considering that Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition is free on Stadia Pro for this month, meaning that paying Stadia Pro players cannot access the game despite paying for their subscriptions.
The Reddit user has chronicled their experience with attempting to contact Stadia to address the issue, which started with Stadia (the publisher of Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition) suggesting that the Redditor contact the game's publisher to have the issue fixed. The user then decided to reach out to 505 Games, the publisher of the game's PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch versions, to which the publisher claimed that it had no part in the development of the Stadia version. 505 suggested that the user contact Stadia, as the publisher claimed that it had no access to the code utilized to develop that version.
The conclusion that many Stadia users have understandably drawn from this wild goose chase is that, due to Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition's developer Typhoon Studio's closure, there is currently no developer available to patch the game. While Google has claimed that it is looking into the issue with its "publishing partners," this statement has raised suspicion with players as the game is developed and published by Google itself.
Journey to the Savage Planet first launched on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in January 2020, with a Nintendo Switch port following in May. The game was met with warm reception from critics at launch, and ended up joining Xbox Game Pass later in 2020. The game was directed by Alex Hutchinson, the director of Assassin's Creed 3 and Far Cry 4.
Journey to the Savage Planet is currently available for Google Stadia, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.