Back on Sunday, we reported on a rather weird wrinkle in Netflix’s ongoing efforts to make the most of its relationship with TV mega-creator Shonda Rhimes: The news that the streaming service/content creator would also be developing video games and virtual reality experiences based around Rhimes’ projects. (“Now you, too, can thrill to the challenge of trying to get Regé-Jean Page to do one measly cameo for Bridgerton season two!”)
As it turns out, though, Netflix’s gaming ambitions weren’t relegated to stories about ribald looks and ripped bodices; the streaming service has actually decided to get into video games in a fairly serious way. This is per The Hollywood Reporter (working, in turn, from a report from Bloomberg), which notes that Netflix has just hired Mike Verdu as its new vice president of game development. Verdu’s most recent gig was at Facebook-owned VR firm Oculus, but he was previously a bigwig at Electronic Arts’ mobile gaming division, helping to figure out ways to turn The Sims into a microtransaction-powered phone game, which, hooray.
But, hey: No fair judging the guy before he’s even had a chance to start developing all these fancy new Netflix games, especially when we have some pitches burning a hole in our heads. Give or take a few Stranger Things games, Netflix has a lot of untapped IP that’s ripe for gaming development, and we’d love to help Verdu tap it, whether it’s creating an Orange Is The New Black prison escape simulator, or an Old Guard action game, or maybe just that fake “Control Bo Burnham” video game from Inside.
Really, we can roll these out as quickly as we can scroll our way through Netflix’s gargantuan, memory-resistant labyrinth of original content. Queen’s Gambit chess simulator. She-Ra dating sim/action-RPG. BoJack Horseman career management sim. Maybe a Witcher video game (No; it’d never work.) And, oh, god, we’d actually play this one: A WarioWare-esque microgame collection where you get to play through every single sketch from I Think You Should Leave. Did we just The Secret that into reality? Fingers crossed!
That’s to say nothing of the possibility of meta games about Netflix itself. Take on the power of life and death in Show Canceler. Carefully maneuver your films into week-long theatrical runs in Oscars Bid. And run from the least comprehensible creatures in the universe in Yes, There Are Still People Who Make Us Send Them DVDs In The Mail. The possibilities are endless! We can’t think of any more right now, mind you, but we’re damn near certain that they are.
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Wait, no, don’t end the article, we just thought up an amazing idea for a Russian Doll adventure ga—