Game Studio Shutdown Suggests Gaming May Not Be Working Out for Netflix

Tuesday October 22, 2024 4:57 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Netflix recently shut down its "Team Blue" gaming studio in Southern California, according to Game File. The studio included industry veterans that worked on titles like Halo, Overwatch, and God of War.

netflix games launch
There have been mobile gaming titles available through Netflix since 2021, but Team Blue was supposedly working on a big budget AAA gaming title that would have represented an expansion of Netflix's gaming efforts.

The decision to shutter the studio developing an original multi-platform AAA title suggests that gaming might not be going so well for Netflix. Back in 2022, a report suggested that less than one percent of Netflix subscribers were engaging in games, but Netflix has made an effort to introduce more premium titles since then.

Netflix's mobile gaming catalog includes several Grand Theft Auto titles, popular roguelike Hades, Cozy Grove, Farming Simulator, Spiritfarer, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and more. The games are included with a Netflix subscription, and no additional fees are required to play them.

Netflix games can be downloaded as standalone games on Apple devices, and are available to play after logging in with an active Netflix account.

Tag: Netflix

Top Rated Comments

antiprotest

19 months ago

I think many Netflix users still don't know they offer games but they even have GTA.

Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)

xmarcuswildx

19 months ago

Not once have I touched these.

Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)

sw1tcher

19 months ago

The decision to shutter the studio developing an original multi-platform AAA title suggests that gaming might not be going so well for Netflix.

😂 Trying to extrapolate Netflix closing a gaming studio with things not going well. And maybe even Netflix abandoning gaming???

It helps to read Netflix's investor letter and listen to the analyst call from last week when they reported earnings. If you had, you'd know they will continue to invest in gaming

From Investor Letter:

We’re pleased that we’ve reaccelerated our growth and, as we head into 2025, we expect to deliver solid revenue and profit growth by both improving our core series and film offering while investing in new growth initiatives like ads and gaming.

[ . . . ]

At just under 10% of TV time today in our biggest countries, we believe there’s a huge opportunity to grow that share by investing even more in our slate and continuing to improve the variety and quality of our offering. Part of that improvement is ensuring we have a steady drumbeat of great, new TV shows, movies and games throughout the year to satisfy our members.

From analyst call Q&A:

Gregory K. Peters
Co-CEO, President & Director

Our second set of priorities are about planting seeds, these investments and new initiatives that help us expand and strengthen our entertainment offering and that we believe will be incremental levers for growth in the coming years. We've got initiatives like games. We're excited about games based on Netflix IPs. We got a Squid Game coming. We've got a Virgin River Christmas. We've got The Ultimatum. We've got games based on storied game classics like Monument Valley 3 that's coming out.

[ . . . ]

I think it's also worth noting that we've got a lot on our plate right now. We've got a lot of hard work building new capabilities. We're building ads. We're building games. We're building live. Those all expand that offering. They deliver more value to members. So we want to focus on building those capabilities.

Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)