Xbox & Halo Veteran Leaves Netflix Games Following Closure Of AAA Studio

A couple of years ago, Xbox and Halo veteran Joseph Staten announced that he was leaving Microsoft to embark on a new adventure, which ultimately ended up being a role on “Team Blue” at Netflix Games working on a new AAA project.

Unfortunately, it’s been confirmed to Game File this week that Netflix Games has shut down the Team Blue studio, and Joe is no longer at the company. Other notable members of the team who have left include former Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny, as well as former God of War art director Rafael Grassetti.

“As of October 2024, however, Netflix has shut down Team Blue and all three of those big hires are no longer at the company, a company rep confirmed to Game File.”

Joe’s departure from Microsoft was a surprise a few years ago, as he’d played a big role on the Halo Infinite team for multiple years, and before that had worked on all kinds of games from Crackdown 3 to State of Decay 2. Back in the day, he was a key part of the Bungie team that developed the original array of Halo titles.

It remains to be seen where he’ll end up next, but considering he’s been around Microsoft for a lot of his career, we wouldn’t be surprised if Team Xbox tries to tempt him back in. In any case, we feel sorry for Joe and his Netflix Games team, especially considering he seemed very excited about the project they’d been working on until recently.