Mike Verdu will join Netflix as vice president of game development, reporting to Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters, the company said on Wednesday. Verdu was previously Facebook’s vice president in charge of working with developers to bring games and other content to Oculus virtual-reality headsets.
The idea is to offer video games on Netflix’s streaming platform within the next year, according to a person familiar with the situation. The games will appear alongside current fare as a new programming genre – similar to what Netflix did with documentaries or stand-up specials. The company doesn’t currently plan to charge extra for the content, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.
Netflix will be building out its gaming team in the coming months, according to the person familiar with the matter. The company has already started advertising for game-development related positions on its website.
Oh man, I had that Gateway game, although I don’t think mine came with a Free Hint Book. I had read (some of?) the books, but I was too young and dumb to make much headway in the game.
Speaking of Mike Verdu, there’s a great article about Mission Critical that’s basically Verdu’s oral history of making the game. I really want to replay that now.
That’s why we’re excited to take our first step in launching Netflix games on mobile to the world. Starting today, members everywhere can play five mobile games: Stranger Things: 1984 (BonusXP) , Stranger Things 3: The Game (BonusXP) , Shooting Hoops (Frosty Pop) , Card Blast (Amuzo & Rogue Games) , and Teeter Up (Frosty Pop)
I wondered if that Ryan Reynolds Netflix Dragon’s Lair project would wind up being more of a game than a movie, but it isn’t presented in the list of games in that article.
Basically just 1% of Netflix subscribers are playing Netflix games.
Remember how Netflix surprised everyone and named Microsoft as its technological partner for its upcoming ad-supported streaming service? Remember, Reed Hastings was once a member of Microsoft’s board. And Reed Hastings mentored Satya Nadella when Satya wanted to study a company outside of Microsoft, so Reed let Satya shadow him multiple times. There are lots of close ties between the two companies. Netflix has TV and movies. MS has games. That could smell of “synergies” down the road.
I have Netflix, but haven’t figured out how to even access the Netflix game catalog (granted, I haven’t spent a lot of time looking, either). At least from my perspective, they have a profound discoverability issue.
It’s definitely not easy to find. Only one I’ve been able to do it is searching for Netflix on the App Store, going in to one of the listings, then looking at more apps from that publisher. I assume you can do something similar on Google Play Store, but I haven’t used that in years.
