For years, Netflix has slowly started ramping up its gaming department. After launching with a mobile offering, they also opened a triple-A development studio in Los Angeles, California, around two years ago, with former Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny chosen as its founder.
The goal was to create a third-person action RPG for PC (and, presumably, consoles). To achieve this objective, the studio continued hiring high-profile industry veterans such as Joe Staten (known as the writer and creative director for various Halo games, ReCore, Crackdown, and more) and Raf Grassetti, former Art Director at Sony Santa Monica on the God of War games.
Despite all this talent, though, Netflix has already decided to shut down this studio, which had become known internally as Team Blue. The news came from Stephen Totilo's Game File, who added that the Netflix gaming department had undergone some major changes starting in July when former chief Mike Verdu was moved to another role. Alain Tascan, former executive vice president of game development at Epic Games, stepped into Verdu's role, and last week, Business Insider reported that Tascan picked former Epic Games VP of game development to join Netflix as VP of game technology and portfolio development. Business Insider also said there were around 35 cuts when Tascan was hired, although Totilo's sources say the figure was slightly lower.
That said, Netflix is not thinking about closing up shop in games if that's something you were worried about. It seems like its other studios (Night School of Oxenfree fame, Next Games, Spry Fox, and Boss Fight Entertainment) will continue as if nothing happened. Of course, most of those are mobile game developers, so the question is whether Netflix plans to resume its triple-A multiplatform plans at some point or if it is content to stay on the mobile market for the time being. Time will tell.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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