Newsbrief: Bloomberg News is reporting that Netflix has hired former Facebook and Electronic Arts executive Mike Verdu to lead the company’s gaming division.
This news follows some rumors back in May that indicated Netflix was looking for a key executive hire to launch an Apple Arcade-like bundle of games.
The company has been toying with the video game world both in interactive projects like Bandersnatch, interactive children’s games and a port of Minecraft Story Mode, while also licensing a number of games like Castlevania, DOTA: Defense of the Ancients, and Splinter Cell to punch up its animated shows.
Verdu previously worked at Facebook to help bring games and other content onto Oculus’ virtual reality platform, and was previously a senior vice president at EA Mobile.
In 2019, Netflix stated that the company “loses more customers to Fortnite than HBO.” Now it appears to intend to go step into the fray with Epic’s Battle Royale phenomenon.