Netflix may venture into video games, hires gaming big gun

Netflix said on Thursday that it had hired a Facebook video game veteran to manage a gaming team at the streaming service.

Mike Verdu has been tapped to lead video game development at the Silicon Valley firm, which has openly referred to viral blockbusters like “Fortnite” as competitors for people’s online entertainment time.

Netflix has already experimented with games, publishing an interactive ‘Bandersnatch’ episode of original series ‘Black Mirror’ as well as a free mobile game based on its popular ‘Stranger Things’ series.

The corporation has been gradually adding video gaming talent, but Verdu is a high-profile hire that could indicate more aggressive aspirations.

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Atari, Electronic Arts, and Zynga are among the companies where the 50-year-old has worked. Verdu was a vice president at Facebook before joining Netflix, where he worked on games for the Oculus virtual reality headset.

Netflix’s ambitions, on the other hand, appear to be in the early stages, with the company still undecided about whether it will generate its own content or host games created by other parties.

Netflix’s decision would open up a new and highly profitable revenue stream for the digital giant, with the worldwide gaming market currently topping $300 billion, according to an April analysis by consultancy firm Accenture.

“We’ve continually expanded our offering — from series to documentaries, film, local language originals and reality TV,” a Netflix spokesperson recently told AFP.

“Members also enjoy engaging more directly with stories they love — through interactive shows like ‘Bandersnatch’ and ‘You v. Wild,’ or games based on ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘La Casa de Papel’ and ‘To All the Boys,'” the spokesperson said.

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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has made it clear that the company’s biggest competitors aren’t only other big-name streaming services like HBO, Hulu, or Disney+, but a number of other online and mobile entertainment platforms as well.

“We compete so broadly,” Hastings told analysts last October as he presented the company’s quarterly earnings.

“We compete for time against TikTok and YouTube as well as HBO as well as Fortnite,” he said.

N’Jeri Eaton, the head of Apple Podcasts, was hired by Netflix last week to manage a podcasting initiative at the streaming television service.

It was unclear how Netflix will incorporate video games or podcasts into its subscription service.