Netflix has closed its triple-A studio and made staff cuts to its broader games team, according to a Game File report.
A Netflix rep confirmed to Game File that ‘Team Blue’, which included former Overwatch lead Chacko Sonny, God of War art director Rafael Grassetti and Halo creative director Joseph Staten, is no more.
As we’ve reported previously, the ambitious LA studio was hiring people to work on “brand-new AAA multi-platform game”, a game “without any competing design constraints due to monetization”. It was potentially the centrepiece to Netflix Games’ push into big screen gaming, following its splashy entry into the mobile game space.
The Game File newsletter also cites a recent Business Insider report, which suggested that around 35 staff cuts were made to the Netflix Games team. Game File’s source says that number is lower, but clearly there’s something of a reshuffle going on at the streaming giant’s games division.
The same Business Insider report says new Netflix Games boss Alain Tascan, a former Epic exec, has brought in fellow ex-Epic leader Jeet Shroff as Netflix Games’ new vice president of game technology and portfolio development.
We broke the news that Netflix was hiring a triple-A game team back in November 2022. That story followed Netflix’s recruitment of former Overwatch lead Chacko Sonny the previous month, and talk of a larger cloud gaming strategy from then-boss Mike Verdu.
Earlier this year, Netflix moved former Games boss and games industry veteran Verdu aside into a new team, and replaced him with Alain Tascan, former first party games lead at Epic.
Netflix games has also since halted its hiring spree which began in 2021 and appeared to peak in mid-2023, a recruitment drive that pulled in countless well-known games and tech execs.
Our latest check-in on Netflix’s lifetime download numbers, according to Appmagic, suggested that by early September, total game installs through the app had hit 210m, with GTA: San Andreas passing 25m downloads – the service’s top performer.
