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Netflix’s “Team Blue” of Halo, Overwatch and God Of War vets close without a single game to their nameStreaming giant’s blockbuster venture shuttered after around two years of operation
Streaming giant’s blockbuster venture shuttered after around two years of operation
Image credit:Netflix
Image credit:Netflix
Netflix have shut down one of their more trumpeted video game initiatives - a Californian studio known as team “Blue” and stocked with former Halo, God Of War andOverwatchdevelopers. It was a major plank in Netflix’s on-going efforts to extend their film and TV streaming empire to what Nicinsists on calling the “greasy screen”.
The news comes viaGamefileand Stephen Totillo, who cites a company representative. Netflix have yet to make a formal announcement. Team Blue’s members included former Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny and former God Of War art director Rafael Grassetti. According to Joseph Staten - an original Halo developer who joined Team Blue in April 2023 after helping 343 Industries polish offHalo Infinite- they were working on “a brand-new AAA multiplatform game and original IP”.
Netflix have been trying to establish themselves as a gaming publisher and platform since around the turn of the decade. They began stocking mobile games on their store in 2021, and have splurged on a few studio purchases -Oxenfree2 devs Night School Studio in 2021, then Next Games and Boss Fight Entertainment in 2022. In 2022, it also emerged that they werehiring in Los Angeles to develop a triple-A PC game.
Netflixtrialled game streaming in August 2023, andapproached Rockstar about bringing GTA to Netflix(you can now find theGrand Theft AutoTrilogy on the service). As of July 2024, Netflix Games had over 80 games in development, with around 100 available already. Whether they are seeing returns on all this investment is another question. Also in July 2024, co-CEO and president Gregory K Petersconcededthat engagement with games on Netflix remains “quite small”.
It’ll be interesting to see what Grassetti, Staten and Sonny get up to now. Given their credits, I’m fairly sure they’ll land on their feet. I wish any less established former Team Blue developers the best of luck finding new work. As for Netflix Games as a whole, I don’t get the sense that they have much vision beyond “video games now make more money than film and we want a piece of the pie”.
