Following previous reports that Netflix was forging a way into gaming, they have since then made concrete steps toward this. Netflix has acquired former Electronic Arts and Facebook executive Mike Verdu. As reported by Bloomberg, the streaming service will be branching out into video games. Verdu will be Netflix's vice-president for game development. Previously, he was vice-president in charge of bringing games and other content to Oculus at Facebook. He also previously worked in Zynga Inc. as their chief creative officer.

Apparently, Netflix is looking into having video games on the platform by next year. These games will appear alongside the current roster of shows and movies. Currently, they also do not plan on charging extra for the incoming video game content. New job listings also opened on the official website, seemingly to fill out the new team with burgeoning talent.

In a streaming-service saturated world, branching into other forms of entertainment may be the key to Netflix standing out from the competition. This will let them compete with Disney+ and Amazon Prime by giving their customers a service that is currently unavailable in other platforms.

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Netflix's previous efforts that may have influenced this move are their interactive shows. Black Mirror's Bandersnach, for example, functioned as an interactive movie. It was as close to videogames as they have gotten previously. Netflix has also previously licensed its shows and collaborated with other developers. A recent example of this is their collaboration with Smite for Stranger Things.