Five months after Netflix Games announced that generative AI in its game development studios would be a major focus for them, driven by the promotion of Mike Verdu to the vice president in charge of that technology, Verdu has apparently left Netflix Games (confirmed to Stephen Totilo’s Game File) indicating that its embrace of generative AI as a tentpole of game development may have been premature.
When Verdu was first announced for his role, his enthusiasm for the role could not have sounded more boisterous. In a LinkedIn post, Verdu took a futurist tact about the technology and its utility in game development.
“GenAI is that next challenge,” Verdu wrote at the time. “I don’t think I’ve been this excited about an opportunity in this industry since the 90s, when we saw a new game launch every few months that redefined what was possible. It was an incredible time to be making games as talented creators showed all of us what the future looked like. Guess what? We’re back to those days of seemingly unlimited potential and the rapid pace of innovation, which resulted in mind-blowing surprises for players every few months.”
While the post was heavy on excitement for the potential of generative AI, it was light on the details. Verdu was unable to articulate exactly what about the technology he had expected to help software development — especially in light of major layoffs — and that seems not to have improved much over the last five months. Verdu spearheaded the gaming initiative at Netflix as a whole, so his sudden departure leaves a large hole in the gaming business’ forward momentum.
It is not entirely clear what becomes of the generative AI initiative now that Verdu is gone. Netflix has not announced a replacement or successor for Verdu’s position, suggesting that the attempt to make generative AI a larger focus within Netflix Games is not the company’s biggest priority at the moment.
According to Netflix, the biggest gaming driver of downloads for the app has been Grand Theft Auto, a game not developed by Netflix Games but instead Rockstar. More in Netflix’s favor, Squid Game: Unleashed ranked in the top ten of the app store’s action games most downloaded list in 107 countries.
That said, the company also described these games’ effects on subscriber retention to be “relatively small.”
All this puts Netflix at a crossroads with its gaming initiative: either keep making original titles under their own umbrella or license things out for a smaller investment with marginal differences to overall Netflix subscriber numbers. Even if they choose the former path, clearly the company has lost its taste for wholly original developed content, so generative AI is likely very appealing. But such a pivot might take a lot of time and expense to get the ball rolling, which would explain Verdu not making much headway with it over his short time in the role.
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