Netflix has hired former Oculus VP of content Mike Verdu as VP of game development, the company confirmed to PC Gamer. Business magazine Bloomberg said the hire is Netflix's "first big move" toward expanding into video games, according to an anonymous source at Netflix.

In May, Netflix said it was "excited to do more with interactive entertainment" following rumors that it was planning to hire a game development executive to create video games, exactly what we are hearing today. According to Bloomberg's sources, Netflix hopes to offer the game within a year.

What exactly that will look like is unclear, but one thing is clear: Amazon and Google seem to be struggling in this business (Amazon has yet to release anything good, and Google has closed its Stadia studio. They produced Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, an interactive film that I liked a lot; You vs Wild may not have been very successful, but James enjoyed feeding Bear Grylls bear poo.

Choice movies are no match for "New World," Amazon's repeatedly postponed MMO attempt, but will Netflix stop at the "bear poo" button: perhaps, like other movie companies, they will launch a major game studio, then sell it to EA or Disney, and later They will probably shut it down. That would be the traditional way.

Seriously, Bloomberg suggests that Netflix's entry into gaming is not just about interactive programming. The magazine also notes that Netflix is looking for a director of interactive product innovation. The job posting specifically mentions "Black Mirror": the department is working on "game-like experiences and different ways to interact with stories." It seems that the streaming service is not thinking about sex/life MOBAs right now. For the time being, we expect something more Bandersnatch-like.

That said, even though Netflix had a slow start, I wouldn't be surprised if it sees significant growth in the next few years. There are plenty of streaming services that deliver movies and TV shows, so Netflix's value currently depends on acquiring and developing exclusive hits. Adding game streaming would differentiate it from HBO, Disney, Hulu, etc. in a more fundamental way. If game streaming is the future, as Google, Microsoft, Nvidia and everyone else seems to think, then Netflix should become the Netflix of games.

It is worth noting that Netflix has recently shown a general interest in gaming audiences; Netflix's The Witcher series has benefited greatly from the popularity of games, and vice versa. Netflix's Castlevania series has been the Netflix's "Castlevania" series has been and will continue to be the best so far, while the Netflix-produced Dota series has been so-so, with another season in the works. A League of Legends series is also in the works, and several Ubisoft shows are in development, including a live-action Assassin's Creed show and an animated Far Cry show.

On today's big hire: Verdu was Facebook's VP of VR/AR content at last check, but the deal for Oculus games is only a small part of his career. He co-founded Legend Entertainment, an adventure game studio in the 90s, which he continued to run after it was acquired by Atari. He then spent nearly seven years overseeing EA Los Angeles, several years at Zynga, founded a mobile development company, and ran EA's mobile games division for a year and a half. Verdu appears in the credits of Unreal 2, Command & Conquer 3 and 4, and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth, to name a few games. (As a minor side note, EA LA is one of the closed former film studios I mentioned, which started out as DreamWorks Interactive.)

Netflix will announce its Q2 2021 results next Tuesday, July 20, and around that time they may make some announcement about their plans ........