Netflix has hired a former Electronic Arts and Facebook executive to lead the effort to make its first big move beyond TV shows and films: an expansion into video games.
Lucas Shaw and Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
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…
Many of the largest tech companies do sell gaming options in addition to their video services. Apple Inc. has a platform called Arcade for games — as well as a TV+ service for original video projects. But it charges extra for the gaming.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully competition will spur Apple to continue to improve Apple Arcade, but this really just seems like something Netflix will use to help increase stickiness and, likely, justify future price increases.
I wonder if Apple is going to block this like they did the other cloud game services.