Netflix is still serious about getting into game development: not only has it opened another studio led by the former lead of Overwatch, but Vice President of Games Mike Verdu says the company is "seriously exploring" a move into cloud gaming He said.

"It's value-added," he told a TechCrunch Disrupt panel. 'We're not asking people to subscribe to a service that's going to replace their consoles. It's a completely different business model. Over time, we expect it to become a very natural way to play games wherever you are. "Verdu gave no further details about what Netflix's cloud gaming will look like. He was also less forthcoming about whether to expect Netflix's own controllers, such as those offered by Amazon Luna and Google Stadia with their respective services.

However, Verdu did mention Stadia in his talk. This cloud gaming service will end in January 2023, so it is understandable that some are concerned about the feasibility of this technology. However, Verdu believes that cloud gaming was not the cause of Stadia's failure, but rather the way Google handled its business model. Stadia was a technical success," he said. "Stadia was a technical success," he said, "and it was fun to play games with it. There was definitely a problem with the business model."

During this talk, Verdu also revealed that Netflix will open a second in-house studio, this time in Southern California. This follows the opening of an in-house studio in Helsinki, Finland in September. Netflix will now have five studios, including the three acquired studios Boss Fight Entertainment, Next Games, and Night School Studio.

The studios will be headed by Chacko Sonny, the former executive producer of "Overwatch," who left Blizzard shortly after the company began facing allegations of widespread sexual harassment and misconduct. This is the first known position he has held since leaving the "Overwatch" team, which Verdu claims is significant.

"He could have done anything, but he chose to come here. You don't get people like that in your organization to build the next big thing in the game unless you feel that we are really in it for the long term and for the right reasons," he said.

As it stands, Netflix currently has 14 games in development, and Verdu said 55 games are "in flight." As far as we know, it still intends to stick to mobile games for now; according to Verdu, Netflix hopes to eventually have about half of its games based on its own IP.