Global streaming giant Netflix is most likely to get into video games by next year, a media report by an American website suggests. Netflix has also confirmed on Wednesday that it has hired a former Oculus, Electronic Arts and Zynga executive—Mike Verdu—as its Vice President for games development department. However, the biggest subscription-based video service refused to comment beyond their latest recruit. In the past, Netflix has hinted at advancing its interest in gaming. If that is true, they will be getting into yet another ever-booming market in the entertainment vertical other than movies, documentaries and web series.
They have experimented with games before through their interactive, adventure-based programming like ‘Bandersnatch’ among other licensing and merchandising collaborations. In April this year, Netflix’s chief operation and product officer, Greg Peters, also spoke about the company’s interest in gaming. “We’re trying to figure out all these different ways… we can deepen that fandom, and certainly games are a really interesting component of that… There’s no doubt that games are going to be an important form of entertainment and an important modality to deepen that fan experience,” Peters had said in a statement at the time. Netflix has repeatedly pointed out that it faces stiff competition that goes beyond traditional TV subscriptions and film companies. It has also spoken about gaming sites and user-based video-generating service YouTube as its toughest competitors.
