Raf Grassetti Transitions to Roguish Canine Following Netflix Studio’s Closure

Image courtesy of Sony Santa Monica/PlayStation.

Raf Grassetti, the artistic director for Sony Santa Monica’s (SSM) recent God of War series, has found himself back at PlayStation following Netflix’s significant studio closure. On X (formerly Twitter), he revealed that he has commenced a “new chapter” at fellow A-list developer Naughty Dog.

Grassetti departed SSM last year after working “over a decade” with the God of War team. Weeks later, he announced that he was joining Netflix Games’ then-growing studio focused on developing triple-A titles. Codenamed Crew Blue, it included fellow industry veterans Joe Staten (Halo) and Chacko Sonny (Overwatch), and the team was creating an original project for PC and consoles.

This past October, Netflix closed Crew Blue in a layoff wave impacting 35 employees. The developer represented a critical initiative for the streaming service, as it had primarily been acquiring pre-existing indie studios such as Spry Fox and Next Games up until Blue’s establishment in 2022.

At this moment, it remains uncertain where Sonny and Staten have landed after the closure of Crew Blue.

What’s happening with Naughty Dog?

Earlier this year, Naughty Dog released a PlayStation 5 remake of The Last of Us Part II. However, following the cancellation of its live-service spinoff for that franchise, it is unclear what the renowned developer is focusing on next.

In February, PlayStation laid off 900 employees across its various first-party studios and scrapped numerous projects. Naughty Dog was among the studios affected, along with Insomniac Games and Guerilla Games.

Nevertheless, studio head Neil Druckmann announced in June that Naughty Dog is developing a number of single-player projects. While the studio has disclosed little about these titles, at least one will feature Troy Baker—a frequent Naughty Dog collaborator—in some capacity.

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