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Netflix shuts down 'AAA' Team Blue gaming studio only two years after creation

Draugoth

Gold Member
netflix-closes-game-studio-in-california-v0-sGeOv5pBN5MDqoip00OjtMcDMTPEcElL4Y2CoTcuciQ.jpg



One of Netflix’s most intriguing video game studios is no more.

The company’s Southern California game studio, one of a handful of internal studios assembled by Netflix in recent years as part of its expansion into video games, has been shut down, Game File has learned.

The studio, also known as team “Blue,” seemed poised to break the mold of what Netflix is doing in gaming. Early hints about the team’s work suggested it was pursuing a big-budget multi-device strategy, signifying the ambitious edge of Netflix’s initial mobile-focused expansion.

As proof of that, Team Blue had made some splashy hires in the past two years:

In late 2022, Netflix wooed Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny from Blizzard to build its SoCal studio. (Sonny had stints on Call of Duty and Sony Santa Monica before that).

In spring 2023, Netflix’s SoCal studio added Joesph Staten, a longtime creative lead on Microsoft’s Halo franchise at Bungie and 343 Industries. Staten was exiting the Xbox camp for Netflix to work “as creative director for a brand-new AAA multiplatform game and original IP,” he said at the time. That move was widely covered in the gaming press, a sign that Netflix was very serious about this gaming thing.

That same spring, Team Blue also recruited art director Rafael Grassetti, who had nearly a decade of experience at Sony Santa Monica where he’d most recently been the God of War studio’s overall art director.
 
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Topher

Identifies as young
gone christmas GIF


Seriously.....two months?

Draugoth Draugoth Don't think that is right.

"
As proof of that, Team Blue had made some splashy hires in the past two years:

In late 2022, Netflix wooed Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny from Blizzard to build its SoCal studio.
(Sonny had stints on Call of Duty and Sony Santa Monica before that)."

Did you mean two years?

Edit: Nevermind. Thread title corrected
 
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Magic Carpet

Gold Member
Did they eve release a game?
If you have Netflix and a phone people should check out the stuff available.
I cant be the only one downloading and playing these things. They play great on my iPhone.
Though I could not tell you which games are netflix produced. There is a big library available.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Another drunk post by Draugoth... Two months = two years?

Yeah, not surprised by this at all. Netflix wanted to dip their toes into the AAA space and create their own studio and IP, but it's hard work, extremely hard work. I bet less than 25% of new AAA studios are successful out of the gate.

Makes sense to cut your losses and just buy an established studio or publisher. They probably burned through so much money with nothing to show for it.
 

xanaum

Member
Damn, man! I was curious to see where this was going. I feel bad for Rafael Grassetti, the guy's got incredible talent, and I hope he finds a big studio soon or goes back to Santa Monica.
 
After seeing the gaming industry landscape in 2023-24, Netflix said, we changed our mind, don't think we want to expand there
Not quite.

They are specifically avoiding the big budget/AAA landscape, not the gaming landscape in general. They have been putting games onto their mobile app every month, similar to apple arcade and google play pass. Some of them published by Netflix themselves.
 

SweetTooth

Gold Member
Making games is HARD. Its nothing like carrying a DSLR and shooting whatever low quality cringey Netflix movie.
 
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FunkMiller

Gold Member
Netflix, Amazon, Google, MS... companies believing they have what it takes to make AAA games and failing miserably. Are videogames really harder that sending a drone to mars 🤔...... 🤷🏼‍♂️

No, they're not. But you have to have the right people making them. None of the big tech companies ever understood that. They hired a bunch of techbros to run the teams, and completely forgot about the people with the talent. They need to be in high up positions for games to get made. But they're generally not corporate types, so get overlooked by the corporations, who value being corporate over anything else. Amazon, for instance, stifles any creativity with its mountains of corporate double speak and attitude.
 
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lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
Another "janitor from well known big game studio" new founded studio shut down.
 

Neilg

Member
Shocking...another non-gaming company thinks they can get into gaming, and realize that it takes money to do, so they pull the plug.
It's not that it takes money - it takes good managers, and the creatives they hired thought they didn't need management
 
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Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
What you guys don't realize is as they fail to create their own studios, they'll simply start buying out existing studios and publishers.
 

Ovek

7Member7
I bet they were making a hero shooter gaas game. Netflix being Netflix had no intention of releasing it as free to play and took one look at Concord and bailed before the investment went too deep.
 

Lunarorbit

Member
I've never had a desire to pay a game on netflix besides that bear grells survival show/game and the baderhose or whatever it was called interactive movie
 
Joe Staten just can't catch a break.

But he is way too talented to be slumming it at some shitty Netflix studio anyway. Hopefully he joins a developer that's actually worth a damn next.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Netflix, Amazon, Google, MS... companies believing they have what it takes to make AAA games and failing miserably. Are videogames really harder that sending a drone to mars 🤔...... 🤷🏼‍♂️
It might be. Science is objective, while fun is subjective.

Or something.

Cosmo Kramer Mind Blown GIF
 

NickFire

Member
I would have been more surprised if the Netflix culture could produce an actual AAA caliber game that would resonate with the gaming audience.
 

Fbh

Member
After 2 years they probably realized a fully voiced RPG that accounts for all 857 gender was going to be too expensive and time consuming
 
gone christmas GIF


Seriously.....two months?

Draugoth Draugoth Don't think that is right.

"
As proof of that, Team Blue had made some splashy hires in the past two years:

In late 2022, Netflix wooed Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny from Blizzard to build its SoCal studio.
(Sonny had stints on Call of Duty and Sony Santa Monica before that)."

Did you mean two years?
I don’t understand your question. Late 2022 to now is two years. It is late 2024. What am I missing?
 
The way these non gaming companies spin up these studios and then shut them down before they even get a chance to launch anything. Did they not know what the investment in time and dollars was going to be from the beginning?
 

VAVA Mk2

Member
Joe Staten just can't catch a break.

But he is way too talented to be slumming it at some shitty Netflix studio anyway. Hopefully he joins a developer that's actually worth a damn next.
I think it would be hilarious if he went back to Microsoft (again) and worked with Marcus Lehto (rumored to be back at Halo Studios) to work on the Halo remake in Unreal Engine 5.
 
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