Netflix shares rose 2% in extended trading Wednesday after Bloomberg reported that the company has hired video-game executive Mike Verdu from Facebook where he served as vice president of augmented reality and virtual reality content.
The move reflects a desire at Netflix to go beyond offering television shows and movies to video gaming, a move also seen among Amazon, Google and Microsoft, among others.
Netflix has been tiptoeing into the gaming market for two years. The company announced at the E3 gaming conference in 2019 that it planned to release a mobile game based on the “Stranger Things” series, following an announced launch of Stranger Things 3: The Game” for consoles and PCs.
Prior to joining Facebook, Verdu previously worked at gaming companies Atari, Electronic, Kabam and Zynga.
