Eyeing a good larger slice of the media pie, Netflix is planning an imminent growth into the online game area, and has reportedly tapped a former Electronic Arts and Facebook govt to helm the initiative.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg News was the primary to report that Netflix had chosen Mike Verdu — most lately vp of augmented actuality and digital actuality content material at Facebook — to function vp of recreation growth. Once put in on the platform, Verdu will report back to Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters, in line with Bloomberg.

The announcement represents simply the most recent push by Netflix into an area past streaming content material like tv reveals and films — a realm that the platform has signaled to its 200 million subscribers for years that it was desirous to delve into. Netflix first hinted at a possible market growth during the E3 gaming convention in 2019, when it introduced a deliberate cellular recreation primarily based on the “Stranger Things” franchise.

Since then, Netflix has been lower than coy about its proposed growth: In a 2019 letter to shareholders, the corporate named — Fortnite — a well-liked online game recognized that has one thing to do with dancing, if I’m not mistaken — as its main competitors. And in May of 2021, The Information first reported that Netflix was in search of an govt to spice up its investments within the gaming area. It’s additionally not the primary time Netflix has sought to blur the road between conventional streaming content material and extra avant-garde media, together with latest interactive options like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Carmen Sandiego.

If the inventory market is to be trusted — and let’s face it, it’s not — Netflix is making strikes that enchantment to stakeholders, with shares rising 2% in prolonged buying and selling on Wednesday following the announcement of Verdu’s appointment. If all this retains going apace, it seems to be like we’d all higher brace ourselves for My Octopus Teacher: The Interactive Deep Sea Experience by 2025.