Netflix has reportedly closed its in-house triple-A game studio known as “Team Blue”, with a number of high profile developers it’d hired to be part of that studio, as part of its efforts to expand into the video game sphere, having left the company.
This is according to a report from Game File‘s Stephen Totilo, which states that as of this month, October 2024, Netflix has shut down the SoCal-based developer, with three splashy hires that had been part of it being confirmed to have moved on.
At various points in recent years, the streaming giant had recruited ex-Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny, former Halo creative lead Joseph Staten, and ex-God of War art director Rafael Grassetti to join “Team Blue”‘s ranks.
Staten especially was indicated to be a pretty important cog in Netflix’s gaming efforts when he joined in 2023. “In my work life, there’s nothing I love more than collaborating with others to build worlds filled with iconic characters, deep mysteries, and endless adventures,” the developer wrote of the his move to Netflix on Twitter at the time, “So today, I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve joined Netflix Games as creative director for a brand-new [triple-A] multiplatform game and original IP. Let’s go!”
What the departure of the trio and the closure of the studio will mean for Netflix’s gaming efforts isn’t clear right now, with the company seemigly having not provided any explanation of why it’s made this move. In an earnings call earlier this year, the streaming service’s bigwigs said it had more than 80 games in development at that time.
“We’re getting close to three years into our gaming initiative, and we’re happy with the progress that we’ve seen,” co-ceo and president Gregory Peters said in that same call, “We’ve had set ourselves pretty aggressive engagement growth targets. And we’ve met those, exceeded those in many cases.” He did, however, admit that Neflix’s gaming foray was still “quite small” compared to its efforts in film and TV.
So, we’ll have to see how it proceeds from here, and here’s hoping those stafdf who’ve left can land on their feet.