Typhoon Studios' Journey to the Savage Planet was a comedic pulp sci-fi adventure that placed players in the moon boots of a freshly-recruited explorer working for the galaxy's "fourth best" interstellar exploration company. After enjoying a fairly solid reception in 2020, Typhoon and its game would soon be acquired by Google as one of the first in-house studios for Google's fledgling Stadia cloud gaming platform. The game recently resurfaced thanks to the efforts of Racoon Logic, which developed Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition optimized for the latest consoles. As a bonus, the new edition is free for previous owners and includes the Hot Garbage DLC.
Game ZXC spoke with Typhoon Studios and now Raccoon Logic's creative director Alex Hutchinson about the fate of the game and its developers following the studio and Google Stadia's subsequent shutdown. Thankfully for those who enjoyed Journey to the Savage Planet, it looks like the team has managed to bounce back with the Employee of the Month Edition and some promising future plans.
Typhoon Studios Was Axed by Google When Journey to the Savage Planet Released On Stadia
One of the driving forces behind gamers' decision to adopt one console over another is the platform's selection of exclusive games, which was a weakness of Stadia as gamers found little reason to use it over running their existing consoles. Google recognized this and began an initiative to publish its own titles in-house, which lead to the acquisition of Typhoon Studios and its integration into the Stadia Games and Entertainment Studio division. The Stadia version of the game shipped on January 28, 2021, and Google shut down the division along with Typhoon Studios immediately after on February 1.
I think the funniest thing about the first project was that we were acquired by Google, then the pandemic started so we switched to working from home, then just as the pandemic ended they shuttered Stadia, and we were all made redundant without ever having set foot inside a Google office. Also, we were the first, last, and only game internally published by Google, and they made us redundant on the day we shipped.
This shutdown came with almost no warning to those working in the Stadia Games and Entertainment Studio division, and was obviously extremely disruptive to the lives and projects of developers working under a tech giant like Google. The move also prevented Typhoon from fixing any post-release bugs for Journey to the Savage Planet, and gamers instead had to wait weeks for Google to release its own patch for the game. Stadia services then shut down entirely in January 2023.
Raccoon Logic Carries On Journey to the Savage Planet's Legacy
The remnants of Typhoon Studios subsequently formed Raccoon Logic, which is mostly composed of Typhoon developers, many of which are industry veterans who have held major roles in games like Far Cry and Assassin's Creed, along with classics like Splinter Cell and Spore. Racoon Logic's first order of business was re-acquiring the rights to Journey to the Savage Planet, which led to the studio developing the Employee of the Month edition for modern consoles. The Employee of the Month edition was published by 505 Games, Savage Planet's original publisher before the Google acquisition.
Typhoon made the first game, and Raccoon Logic which formed from the ashes of that team is shipping this new version. There are just under 30 of us now, and we have about 75% of that original team on board and 25% new blood that brings some great new perspectives. Most of us have been doing this for a long time.
Thanks to some help from tech firm Tencent, Raccoon Logic now holds the intellectual property rights to the franchise, meaning a Journey to the Savage Planet sequel is no longer off the table. Hutchinson says that the studio is gearing up for a big announcement later this year regarding its next game.
Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month is available on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
