Netflix’s gaming division is known for its indie and mobile titles, but the company has recently made a push into AAA by hiring executives from high-profile franchises like aura, Monitoring and God of war. That strategy may be about to end, though, as Netflix has shut down its AAA studio known as Team Blue, the company confirmed to Game file.
In 2022, Netflix brought the previous version Monitoring President Chacko Sonny to head up new SoCal-based AAA studio. A year later, the former aura Exec Joseph Staten was appointed creative director, and followed God of war Technical director Rafael Grassetti. At that time both Staten said He was working on a cross-platform AAA game with a brand new IP.
These executives are no longer with the company, Netflix has confirmed Game file Team Blue is closed. Engadget has reached out to Staten and Grassetti for comment.
Netflix entered the gaming space in 2017 with its retro-inspired style Strange things Mobile game. In the following years, its strategy focused primarily on acquiring mobile publishing rights to respected indie titles such as In rags and Tera Neil. It has also built a number of mobile games in-house. In 2023, Netflix had approximately 90 such titles in development with internal and partner studios.
It can be accessed through the Netflix app and played directly on your device, so it fits well into their overall streaming strategy. Team Blue Studio’s project didn’t quite fit this model, which made it a bit of a surprise. As Engadget’s Igor Bonivasic noted at the time, “Funding the development of a cross-platform AAA game is much more ambitious and, it should be noted, risky.”
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