In a brutal year of gaming layoffs, Netflix has shut down a studio focused on an original “AAA multiplatform” title. The Southern California outfit was apparently known as team “Blue” and featured employees with experience on franchises like Halo, Overwatch, and God of War.
Game File was first to report on the closure of this Netflix gaming developer. Overwatch veteran Chacko Sonny started the studio two years ago to become Netflix’s fifth in-house gaming team at that time.
In April 2023, former Halo boss Joseph Staten joined Sonny at Netflix. At the time, Staten said he was the creative director at the studio and making a “brand-new AAA multiplatform game.” Before that, Staten spent nine years at Microsoft and served as head of creative on Halo Infinite. He also worked on the original Halo games at Bungie.
According to Game File, former Sony Santa Monica art director Rafael Grassetti came on board at Netflix around the same time as Staten. However, they have now left Netflix entirely–along with Sonny–after the shuttering of team “Blue.”
In July, Netflix stated it had more than 80 games in development, though its business in the gaming space was “quite small.” It’s been reported that over 10,000 video game jobs have been lost this year, with Ubisoft laying off more people in August, for instance. GameSpot looked into the industry layoffs to try to examine why it’s happening.