Netflix shuts down studio working under former Halo lead

Less than two years after establishing it

Netflix

Team Blue, a triple-A development studio established by Netflix Games, has been shut down, as per a report from Stephen Totilo. It’s been less than two years since former Overwatch producer Chacko Sonny had been tasked with building up the studio in California, which added big names like former Halo creative lead Joseph Staten to its ranks in the meantime.

Staten joined Team Blue in 2023 as the creative director for its debut title, a triple-A multiplatform game based on an original IP. Job listings from last year indicated that the game was supposed to be a third-person action RPG.

Other veterans impacted by the studio’s closure are Rafael Grassetti, former art director at Sony Santa Monica, director of technology Jerry Edsall, and design director Gavin Irby. It’s unclear how many people are affected by the shutdown in total.

Netflix offered salaries of up to half a million USD for the top positions at Team Blue back in January 2023, shortly after the studio’s foundation.

Totilo stated that the closure was not a sign of Netflix backing off of its ambitious video game strategy, but rather a shake-up connected to new leadership taking over Netflix Games. “Definitely a sign of new leaders pulling back from one big bet, but Netflix still has a bunch more studios and execs seem hyped on growth targets and show tie-in games,” he wrote on social media.