Netflix Wants to Throw Its Hat Into the Gaming Market, Hires VP of Game Development

[Raevenlord]

Netflix seems to be closer to coalescing its gaming vision, as the company just hired former EA and Oculus exec Mike Verdu as Vice President of game development. Netflix aims to offer not only streaming video content, but also a gaming pass subscription that ties into its monthly subscription philosophy. Bloomberg says that Netflix might add game streaming to its library as soon as next year - just as if they were another content category, and at no extra charge, which would make sense from a market penetration perspective.

Netflix is still in the hiring process for its gaming team, even though the company prefers to list job openings without employing the word "gaming", choosing instead to market it as "interactive experiences". It remains to be seen what will come from these efforts; another games developer with deep pockets such as Netflix would surely be welcome into this space, especially considering the breadth of Netflix-developed IPs. However, as we've seen with Google's gaming development efforts, deep pockets don't solve all the problems related to delivering compelling gaming experiences. But who would say no to a good Stranger Things interactive experience?



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Netflix is still in the hiring process for its gaming team, even though the company prefers to list job openings without employing the word "gaming", choosing instead to market it as "interactive experiences".

I have interactive experiences with gaming, prolly not the the same.

 

[demian_vi]

I have interactive experiences with gaming, prolly not the the same.

a gaming service full of mediocre limitless number of games

 

[FreedomEclipse]

The thing is, Mike Verdu has only had a hand in four games dating between 1992-2008 and his 2008 release (Command and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath) is questionable as his name isnt listed ANYWHERE on the games wiki page....

Im not quite sure if he understands modern gaming market or the trends to be fully useful in his new position but maybe im overlooking something?? (Hes produced games but not designed them)

I also dont know what he was doing at FB or what the 'VP of Content' even means or entails. He could have been just sitting around eating cheese and drinking wine for his entire time at FB

No doubt someone will know more.

 

[sepheronx]

a gaming service full of mediocre limitless number of games

Mediocre is being far too nice to Netflix. Their content is trash.

I imagine the games will be much the same. And yeah, not interested in game streaming anyway.

Edit: And I also loved Rainbow. Great band! Before and even somewhat after Dio.

 

[R-T-B]

a gaming service full of mediocre limitless number of games

Shhh... We call it "steam" around these parts.

(It's a joke, people...)

*Goes back to playing "Rock Simulator"

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Shhh... We call it "steam" around these parts.

(It's a joke, people...)

*Goes back to playing "Rock Simulator"

are you sure youre not confused with Stadia?

 

[64K]

"gaming" is not a dirty word Netflix. Don't be arrogant if you want widespread adoption of your service from gamers.

 

[Mysteoa]

If Netflix is so afraid of the word "gaming", maybe it shouldn't do it or it will probably fail.

 

[Makaveli]

How about no netflix!

Why don't they focus on not cancelling shows after 1 season.

Stay in your lane.

 

[HammerOn1024]

Great... a VP From EA. This will end well for the end user community... yeah.

 

[freeagent]

I cancelled my Netflix after almost a decade. Still don’t miss it. Was getting overpriced for what you get, and not as family orientated as it used to be.

 

[Zareek]

An EA exec... Oh goody, micro-transactions and video ads to the moon and back. I wonder if he was involved in the murder of PopCap Games.

I love paying $60 for games with half the content and then being asked to pay $250 for the rest of the game in $5 chunks!!!

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Shhh... We call it "steam" around these parts.

(It's a joke, people...)

*Goes back to playing "Rock Simulator"

here let me, uhhh, fix that for you.

"Pet Rock Simulator"

 

[dir_d]

I'm thinking more like interactive Movies, my kids love that Minecraft movie where you can choose what the char is going to do.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

If Netflix is so afraid of the word "gaming", maybe it shouldn't do it or it will probably fail.

I'm more inclined to think they wanted to keep it hush-hush about the gaming bit.

 

[Daisho11]

Imagine still having a netflix subscription.

 

[defaultluser]

are you sure youre not confused with Stadia?

I can't imagine that Netflix would make that same mistake - they will probably copy Microsoft Cloud Gaming's all-you-can-stream.

They've already had success with a universal all-you-can-eat paywall ( and could more-easily gain titles, if they don't force you to port too Linux like Stadia), but they will only have PC games.

 

[TechLurker]

I'm guessing the first few "games" would be more of the interactive style similar to Netflix's Carmen Sandiego, which was basically an animated visual novel. Nothing too hard or problematic to grasp.

Then start with simple side-scroller games, relying on the basic 4-way D-pad most modern TV remotes have and a button to fire. Nothing too latency sensitive.

Then make like Amazon with a brand new Netflix Controller (or just work out a deal with the OEM behind Amazon's game controller, just tweaked for Netflix servers instead), and start releasing games that are a bit more latency sensitive, and ramp up from there, with the same general performance tiering as Stadia (Low Quality Graphics for crappy internet speeds up to HD Graphics for Gigabit+ users)

 

[R-T-B]

here let me, uhhh, fix that for you.

You can pet them?

 

[lexluthermiester]

Netflix seems to be closer to coalescing its gaming vision, as the company just hired former EA and Oculus exec Mike Verdu as Vice President of game development.

This can only end poorly..

 

[Diverge]

I cancelled my Netflix after almost a decade. Still don’t miss it. Was getting overpriced for what you get, and not as family orientated as it used to be.

I did the same after being a customer for 14 years. Got tired of all the crap shows, and not being able to filter out foreign content that I was not interested in (no offense to anyone). Got tired of the random UI every time you launch it. Got tired of them upping rates every year while giving politicians boat loads of money for documentaries that no one wants (kickbacks). I can afford the increases, I just chose to draw a line.

A few months back I called them to ask them to permanently delete my account after my elderly dad clicked the Netflix icon on a Shield TV I setup for him, and reactivated my account without needing to verify any info related to the account.

On another note: Cloud gaming is the death of videogames (even though most suck these days anyway). All it does is gives corporations more leverage and control.

 

[SamWarrick]

Ohhh boy I can't wait to play Netflix games with my black minority LMBTQ+ character

 

[demian_vi]

Mediocre is being far too nice to Netflix. Their content is trash.

I imagine the games will be much the same. And yeah, not interested in game streaming anyway.

Edit: And I also loved Rainbow. Great band! Before and even somewhat after Dio.

I agree, I was generous for old times sake. I canceled netflix the moment they started caring about quantity over quality and started canceling new series to avoid paying producers, while at the same time giving millions to shonda rimes and to the Got imbecile guys

Rainbow rocks yeah, great band

Imagine still having a netflix subscription.

It's still cool in some places of the we world, especially those that hit netflix around 2017. They need a couple more years to realize