Netflix continues the restructuring of its gaming division with the shuttering of Team Blue, the streaming giant-owned AAA game development studio. Team Blue is one of the studios that Netflix has put together in recent years to support its foray into video games.
Before its shuttering, it was suggested that Team Blue was working on a big-budget multi-device strategy game. The game would have been a huge deviation from Netflix’s mobile-focused game strategy.
ALSO READ: Details Of Nintendo Switch Online Playtest Program Leaks
The speculation about Team Blue’s ambitious project was backed by the number of high-profile hires it made in the last two years. Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny was brought into the company from Blizzard in late 2022 to build its SoCal studio.
Around a year later, the SoCal studio wooed Joesph Staten, a veteran creative lead on Microsoft’s Halo franchise. Staten was to work for Netflix “as creative director for a brand-new AAA multiplatform game and original IP,” he confirmed at that time.
In the spring of the same year, art director Rafael Grassetti also joined Team Blue. Grassetti has almost a decade of experience working at Santa Monica where he was recently made the studio’s overall art director.
At the time of writing, all three big hires have left the Netflix company as confirmed by Game File. Over the last few years, Netflix has poured cash into its gaming division, in an attempt to become more than just a streaming platform. However, that huge investment has yet to pay off.
It continues to struggle with finding audience and profitability in gaming and offering its games to paid subscribers for free through the Netflix mobile app has not helped to move the needle.
Netflix is still searching for its breakout game that will put it in the spotlight. The game that came close to playing that role was Poinpy, a mobile game created by Ojiro Fumoto and published by Devolver Digital. The game received an average Metascore of 87.
