Netflix has shuttered one of its more notorious video game initiatives – the California studio known as the “Blue” team, which housed the former creators of Halo, God Of War and Overwatch. This has been a major obstacle to Netflix’s ongoing efforts to expand their movie and TV streaming empire into what Nic insists on calling the “fat screen.”
The message comes through Game file and Stephen Totillo, who quotes a company representative. Netflix has not made an official statement yet. Team Blue members included former Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny and former God Of War art director Rafael Grassetti. According to Joseph Staten – the original creator of Halo, who joined Team Blue in April 2023 after helping 343 Industries polish Halo Infinite – they were working on “an all-new AAA cross-platform game and original IP.”
Since the turn of the decade, Netflix has been trying to establish itself as a publisher and gaming platform. They started offering mobile games on their store in 2021 and released several studio purchases – Night School Studio from the creators of Oxenfree 2 in 2021, followed by Next Games and Boss Fight Entertainment in 2022. In 2022, it was also revealed that they were hiring Los Angeles will develop a triple-A computer game.
Netflix tested game streaming in August 2023 and contacted Rockstar about bringing GTA to Netflix (the Grand Theft Auto trilogy is now available on the site). As of July 2024, Netflix Games had over 80 games, of which approximately 100 were already available. Another question is whether they see a return on all that investment. Also in July 2024, co-CEO and president Gregory K. Peters he admitted that gaming engagement on Netflix remains “pretty low.”
As John Walker from Kotaku (RPS in the room) notesTeam Blue’s closure isn’t entirely surprising. Netflix doesn’t have much experience in establishing and running its own game development teams, and multi-platform “AAA” originals from experienced hit creators are exorbitant – the kind of prestige item you get rid of when the venerable expected profit curve starts to look worryingly horizontal.
It will be captivating to see what Grassetti, Staten and Sonny are up to now. Considering their merits, I am sure they will get back on their feet. I wish all less experienced Team Blue developers good luck in finding a novel job. When it comes to Netflix Games as a whole, I don’t feel like they have any vision beyond “video games are making more money than film right now and we want a piece of the pie.”
