From the moment it was announced that Netflix had hired a team of former Blizzard, Bungie and Sony developers to create a AAA game, it felt too likely that little or nothing would come of it. Non-gaming companies deciding to try to grab a slice of the giant pie by spending money to recruit big names often seems to end this way (although Amazon is rather noticeably countering this right now). According to Game File, (written by Stephen Totilo, late of this parish), Netflix’s so-called Team Blue has shuttered less than two years after its creation.
Netflix’s attempts to break into video games have been more successful than some, albeit mostly as a result of buying studios already making a game, and then releasing it under its own branding. For instance, buying Night School Studio and releasing Oxenfree II. But given the streamer’s (sensible) focus on mobile gaming, it was a contrary move to have hired some serious industry bigwigs for a larger project.
In April 2023, it was announced that Joseph Staten—creative director on the Halo franchise, amongst a lot more—was joining Netflix Games to helm “a brand-new AAA multiplatform game and original IP.” He joined other big names at the division run by former EA exec Mike Verdu, like Blizzard producer Chacko Sonny and Sony Santa Monica’s art director on God of War, Rafael Grassetti. This nominal dream team was set to create something completely new, and now it seems likely we’ll see nothing of their work.
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This is nothing unusual in the games industry. It’s very common for a publisher to hire a big name or two after their significant successes, only to see that person move on a few years later with no new games to their name. Internal projects often fail to make it to an alpha build—a process which can take months or years—and even if no releases come of it, the whole process can be a positive experience. (Usually you can tell when the individual involved leaves to start their own studio, employing a suspiciously large number of former colleagues.) However, when it’s a company that has no real games development experience, it does seem more likely than not to fail.
Ask anyone from Typhoon Studios, bought by Google just before the release of Journey to the Savage Planet during the search engine’s ill-fated foray into epic albatross Stadia. No, seriously, ask them, because they do not hold back on talking about how badly it went. That team is now independent again, under the new name Raccoon Logic, and making an archly satirical game based on the whole ordeal, Revenge of the Savage Planet.
Netflix’s AAA studio, rather blandly known as Team Blue, seems to have followed the trend. Totilo’s Game File reports that having spoken to a company representative, Team Blue is shut down and all three of the big names are no longer working with Netflix.
At the time of writing, Staten, Sonny and Grassetti all still list Netflix as their place of work on LinkedIn, with the now rather sad most recent post from Staten talking about being excited about the “narrative ambitions” of the team. It seems they were still actively hiring just a month ago.
We wish all the best to those affected.
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