Raf Grassetti, ex-God of War art director, joins Netflix Games

Weeks after departing Sony Santa Monica, Raf Grassetti revealed he's set up shop at Netflix Games. 

The art director on the recent God of War games broke the news on Twitter, announcing he's joining the streamer's subsidiary studio headed up by Joe Staten and Chacko Sonny. That project, as Staten said when he first joined Netflix Games as its creative director, will be a "new original IP triple-A game." 

Grassetti worked at Sony Santa Monica for over a decade, and was a character artist on titles such as The Order: 1886. He built a name for himself based on his character art for the aforementioned God of War titles, along with takes on DC and Marvel Comics characters. 

Jerry Edsall is a new name brought up in relation to Netflix Games, and according to his LinkedIn, he'll be the studio's QA director. His previous work includes serving as lead programmer and lead campaign engineer on The Coalition's Gears of War 4 and Gears 5.

The California studio will be Netflix's first go at making games beyond mobile titles that can be played on its native app. This is also the first official confirmation that Staten and Sonny, a producer on Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch franchise, are working in the same studio.

With how much clout Grassetti and Staten have individually, Netflix having both men on hand will bring attention—and potentially new employees—to the unannounced project.