Netflix hired Amir Rahimi as Vice President of Game Studios and Leanne Loombe as Head of External Game Development as the company’s movement in the video game space developed.
In July 2021, Netflix appointed former EA and Zynga executive Mike Verdu as the streaming service’s VP of Game Development. Then it acquired the developers of the adventure game Oxenfree.
The service’s first five games were released in November 2021 via Netflix’s Android app. After these games, it announced that it will also host the League of Legends side game Hextech Mayhem.
Amir Rahimi is coming to Netflix through Scopely, the mobile game publisher he has chaired for nearly two years, responsible for titles such as Marvel Strike Force, Scrabble GO, Star Trek: Fleet Command, and The Walking Dead: Road to Survival.
In the past, Rahimi has served at several companies concurrently with Verdu, including Electronic Arts, Zynga, Kabam, and TapZen.
Netflix has previously stated that the games will be free to subscribers and will not contain any ads.
In a statement to GamesBeat, Verdu made the following comments;
“I am pleased to welcome Amir to Netflix where he will build out our games studio team and content library for Netflix Games. His extensive experience in the games industry will be key as we look to grow our catalog of games for our members around the world to enjoy.”
Leanne Loombe is coming to Netflix through League of Legends and Valorant developer and publisher Riot Games. She has previously acted as head of 3rd Party Development and Executive Producer of Riot Forge she.
Riot Forge is an organization that develops games such as Hextech Mayhem, which will be released on Netflix. Unlike Riot Games, it does not offer its own resources but offers games made with contracted developers to users.
Loombe also spent part of her career at Electronic Arts as the Producer of the Need for Speed series.
Rahimi and Loombe join Christopher Lee (Game Resource Manager) and Yoko Nakao (Head of Game Operations) on the Netflix Games team.
Who is Netflix targeting with its games?
Netflix’s video game subscription strategy is still in its infancy and is currently focused on providing games to Netflix users on Android mobile devices. It is assumed that the company’s ultimate goal is to deliver interactive experiences that can be played on TVs, similar to existing choose-your-own-adventure experiences such as Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
