Netflix was working on a AAA multiplayer shooter with a team that included Halo and Destiny veteran Joe Staten, but the game and the studio were scuttled in 2024. Why? One of Netflix’s top gaming bosses, Alain Tascan, said in an interview that this project did not align with the company’s goals.
“I don’t want this move to be seen as, ‘We’re not going to do big ambitious games,'” Tascan told Bloomberg. “It was just the genre of the game… I don’t think was matching the platform. This team was really good at what they were doing, but we wouldn’t have been the best partner for them to express their skills and their expertise.”
The shift away from this game came amid a wider shakeup at at Netflix’s film and TV divisions that calls for fewer, less-expensive releases that aim for higher quality.
Netflix is now focused on four main areas for its upcoming games slate, including party games, kids games, narrative games, and “mainstream” games. These titles will be made for phones and to be beamed to TVs via Netflix’s own streaming systems–and won’t come to Xbox or PlayStation consoles.
For years already, Netflix has been testing streaming games directly to your TV or computer, in addition to launching games for mobile.
“It’s a little bit like a musician, we start copying a few things and then at one point we’re going to find our voice,” Tascan said. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take exactly, but I’m very bullish about us finding our voice.”
Just this week, Spry Fox announced Spirit Crossing for Netflix, while Shenmue designer Yu Suzuki’s new game Steel Paws was released in February.