According to ZDnet, Buser - who takes up the new post from tomorrow, 13th September - will report to VP of industry solutions Lori Mitchell-Keller, and hints at a renewed focus at Google to publish third-party titles and strengthen its position in the gaming space. “Google Cloud sees incredible momentum across all industries, and gaming is one of the key verticals we are investing in,” a Google spokesperson told ZDNet. “Jack’s hire illustrates Google Cloud’s continued investment into our global, customer-first gaming strategy, and his five years at Google will help open doors for broader strategic partnerships with customers across YouTube, Stadia, and more,” Mitchell-Keller said in a statement. “Jack brings 20 years of experience within the industry as well as a unique blend of business and technical knowledge to further expand our ability to serve gaming customers.” Buser has previously held several executive positions at PlayStation, including PlayStation Now, PlayStation Plus, and PlayStation Home - which may be making a comeback. Google recently announced a series of new schemes designed to encourage more developers to its cloud-based streaming platform. As Tom reported at the time, several of these plans - such as a share of revenue from Stadia’s Pro subscription service and payouts for converting Stadia customers to Pro subscribers - seem directly aimed at boosting its paid membership offering. For individual games, there’s a new 85 per cent revenue split for titles sold after 1st October up until the end of 2023, and up until the first $3m earned. This is similar to both Google and Apple’s app store policies, which also take just 15 per cent of the revenue cut compared to the industry standard 30 per cent, up to a certain threshold. Stadia also recently added Chromecast with Google TV support and, in May, told our sister site GamesIndustry.biz that it was “alive and well”.
