In a brutal 12 months of gaming layoffs, Netflix has shut down a studio centered on an authentic “AAA multiplatform” title. The Southern California outfit was apparently often known as group “Blue” and featured workers with expertise on franchises like Halo, Overwatch, and God of Warfare.
Game File was first to report on the closure of this Netflix gaming developer. Overwatch veteran Chacko Sonny began the studio two years in the past to turn out to be Netflix’s fifth in-house gaming group at the moment.
In April 2023, former Halo boss Joseph Staten joined Sonny at Netflix. On the time, Staten mentioned he was the artistic director on the studio and making a “brand-new AAA multiplatform sport.” Earlier than that, Staten spent 9 years at Microsoft and served as head of artistic on Halo Infinite. He additionally labored on the unique Halo video games at Bungie.
Based on Game File, former Sony Santa Monica artwork director Rafael Grassetti got here on board at Netflix across the identical time as Staten. Nonetheless, they’ve now left Netflix entirely–along with Sonny–after the shuttering of group “Blue.”
In July, Netflix acknowledged it had greater than 80 video games in growth, although its enterprise within the gaming area was “fairly small.” It has been reported that over 10,000 online game jobs have been misplaced this 12 months, with Ubisoft shedding extra individuals in August, as an example. GameSpot appeared into the business layoffs to attempt to look at why it is occurring.