Mike Verdu, who has largely led Netflix’s expansion into gaming in recent years as Netflix’s vice president of gaming, Announced on LinkedIn His new role within Netflix Games will lead the company’s efforts to leverage generative AI.
As VP of GenAI for Games, this role focuses on using generative AI as the next step in creating games with large teams.
“GenAI is the next challenge. I don’t think I’ve been this excited about an opportunity in this industry since the ’90s, when a new game was being released every few months that redefined what was possible.” wrote Verdu in a LinkedIn post. “It’s been a great time making games, as talented creators have shown us all what the future could be like. Guess what? We’re back to a time when we were blessed with an incredible pace of innovation that brought amazing surprises to players every few months.
It’s worth noting that the announcement of this position came shortly after Netflix closed its only triple-A studio before announcing or releasing a game.
In a blog post, Verdu talks about how AI will accelerate and facilitate creator-driven decision-making, and hopes to make game development more flexible and agile.
“I can’t believe how lucky I am to be alive when such a huge wave is about to hit the gaming industry,” Verdu wrote. “Many people are afraid of this technology, but I’m a games maker at heart and believe that this technology will unlock the potential in all of us, create amazing new experiences for players, and take us to new heights. Yes, we have to adapt and change, but when have we failed to meet that challenge as an industry?”
Netflix isn’t the only game publisher going down this path. Electronic Arts is betting big on AI being a fundamental part of the game creation process. That being said, some skepticism is understandable since Electronic Arts also recently laid off a large portion of its workforce.
