Netflix's "Team Blue" of Halo, Overwatch and God Of War vets close without a single game to their name

Streaming giant’s blockbuster venture shuttered after around two years of operation

Netflix have shut down one of their more trumpeted video game initiatives - a Californian studio known as team “Blue” and stocked with former Halo, God Of War andOverwatchdevelopers. It was a major plank in Netflix’s on-going efforts to extend their film and TV streaming empire to what Nicinsists on calling the “greasy screen”.

As Kotaku’s John Walker (RPS in peace)observes, the closure of Team Blue isn’t wholly surprising. Netflix do not have much experience of founding and running their own game development teams, and “AAA” multiplatform originals crafted by seasoned blockbuster devs are pricey - the kind of prestige item you get rid of when ol' Mr Projected Profit Curve starts to look worryingly horizontal.

It’ll be interesting to see what Grassetti, Staten and Sonny get up to now. Given their credits, I’m fairly sure they’ll land on their feet. I wish any less established former Team Blue developers the best of luck finding new work. As for Netflix Games as a whole, I don’t get the sense that they have much vision beyond “video games now make more money than film and we want a piece of the pie”.