In the latest effort to expand themselves, Netflix just announced that Mike Verdu, former VP of Facebook would be joining them soon. The colossal streaming service hired Verdu as the Vice President of Game Development, making him the in-charge of their gaming unit.
About Verdu
He founded his own defense software company at age 20 and sold it before shifting his team into video games in 1990. Since then, he has worked with game developers like Atari, Electronic Arts, Kabam, etc, and was involved in the creation of many games including “The Lord of The Rings”. He would be reporting directly to Facebook COO, Greg Peters and he’s expected to take Netflix’s gaming efforts to a new level.
Is This a Good Move?
Netflix has previously created games based on shows “Stranger Things” and “La casa de Papel (Money Heist)”. It has also experimented with interaction-based viewer experience with movies such as “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” and “You vs. Wild”. It allowed users to decide the fate of the characters and come to different outcomes just like an RPG.
Hiring such big executives, however, is a bold step towards expansion but it is required as Netflix is looking to increase its subscriber base and it just can’t be stuck in the streaming services forever.
“Companies have to evolve. I think you will see a lot more companies that offer direct to consumer products, even Spotify, even Netflix, offer more and more services. Why have Spotify or Netflix just have video, or just have audio? Why not have gaming? … have a multi-product approach, following what Amazon has done?”, said Liontree’s CEO Aryeh Bourkoff, last month.
Bourkoff is the banker behind many of the year’s biggest media deals. He also hinted at such a move by Netflix and guess what? It was true!
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