Mike Verdu, who was tapped as Netflix‘s first head of its young video game division in 2021, has exited the streamer.
Verdu left Netflix in February, Variety has confirmed, a move that came seven months after Epic Games vet Alain Tascan took over the top slot at the streamer’s gaming department. Just before Tascan’s appointment as president of games, Netflix announced Facebook and EA vet Verdu, who was previously Netflix’s vice president of games, would be shifting into a new role focused on “transformative innovation in game creation and development.”
Last November, Verdu’s position at Netflix changed again, when he became vice president of generative AI for games.
Game File’s Stephen Totilo first reported the news of Verdu’s exit.
Since launching its games business three years ago, Netflix has released more than 100 games and has expanded in both its acquired titles, including the “Grand Theft Auto” franchise’s mobile games, and originals, like the recently released “Squid Game: Unleashed,” which Netflix says is its “most successful game to date.”
The streamer has made it clear its priority is scaling its mobile games offering and now developing co-op party games to be released on TV through Netflix. Unlike competitor Amazon, Netflix’s games business is not focused on producing AAA titles, which are traditionally played on PC and video game consoles.
Tascan and fellow Netflix gaming execs will be in attendance at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Fransisco next week, where they are expected to make several announcements about their strategy moving forward.
