Summary
First reported by Stephen Totilo, Netflix has shut down its studio in Southern California. One of, if not the biggest video game studio under the Netflix banner, its team in California, which has internally been dubbed Team Blue, included some of the heavier hitters Netflix brought on board to help it carve out a bigger niche in the gaming world.
The biggest of those hires, at least in terms of name value, is Joseph Staten, an ex-creative lead at Bungie and 343 Industries who worked on multiple Halo titles as recently asHalo Infinite. Netflix brought in Staten to help establish and build its triple-A studio in California in April 2023, so just 18 months ago.
Netflix Shuts Down Its California Studio
Where Staten And Other Big Names Were Working On Triple-A Titles
It’s believed now that the studio is no more, Staten and other big hires Netflix made to work there have now been laid off. Prior to Staten’s arrival at Netflix, Chacko Sonny, who previously worked as an executive producer onOverwatch, was brought on board. Netflix also hired Rafael Grassetti, the lead art director on the latestGod Of Wargames and other huge projects at Santa Monica, when it recruited Staten. All three of those names and many others are now out of work with the studio shutting down.
The reasoning behind the Netflix studio’s sudden shutdown isn’t yet clear, although it presumably means things weren’t going as the bosses at the streaming service likely envisioned. As recently as July, Netflix’s co-CEOs spoke oftheir desire to release one game per month on the platform, claiming to have 80 of them in development at the time.
It was noted that, to begin with at least, that lofty goal was attainable due to Netflix Stories, mobile games that can be developed a lot more quickly than what Staten and his team were likely working on in California. With Netflix looking beyond mobile games alone and aspiring to join the triple-A gaming space on other platforms, perhaps it realized that arena doesn’t warrant the same results as mobile games, at least not anywhere near as quickly.
Even though Netflix has shut down its studio in California, that doesn’t mean it plans to withdraw from the video game industry entirely. It has other studios dotted around the globe, including one in Helsinki. It has also acquired several smaller studios in recent years. What is now unclear is whether it intends to stick to mobile gaming now that its big studio working on triple-A titles is no more.
