Job listings betray Netflix’s intentions to build high-profile video games

A mere dozen of ads on a job listings website can tell you a lot – especially if the company doing the hiring is Netflix, and if it’s looking for talents in the high-profile video game industry.

The new recruits will be working for the Netflix Game Studio, and the content of these job ads tells us quite a bit about the company’s plans for the near future. In particular, a Game Director is needed to work on “a brand-new AAA PC game.”

“As Game Director, you will be the creative leader of one of Netflix’s first generation of internally developed original games,” Netflix says in the listing, and adds that the selected candidate will have to “develop the world/characters/narrative that are worthy of a Netflix film/TV series.”

Netflix is also looking for an Art Director, Technical Director, Lead Artist, Lead Engineer, and a bunch of other people who will be working in the new Netflix Game Studio. It is led by Chacko Sonny who is the former Executive Producer at Blizzard Entertainment, a major gaming company.

In the job description for Lead Engineer, the new AAA project is specifically described as a third-person action role-playing game built on Unreal Engine – one of the most widely used video game engines, known for its depth of features and visual quality.

It seems Netflix is indeed diving into the PC and console gaming arena. To be fair, it already offers about 40 games for subscribers, but these are mobile spin-offs based on classics and popular Netflix titles, such as Stranger Things, and they’re all played only on smartphones and tablets.

The concept so far is quite simple: as a Netflix subscriber, you can download all games from the Netflix game library and play them without any in-app purchases or season passes. If you stop your subscription, you lose access to the games.

Meanwhile, AAA projects usually include major games created by large development teams that operate huge amounts of money. Gamers usually eagerly await releases of AAA title games as their creators also invest a big chunk of their budget in marketing.

Prominent examples include games such as Grand Theft Auto V, the Assassin’s Creed series, and Fallout. Netflix would be competing with famous triple-A studios – Ubisoft, Rockstar Games, Activision, or Bethesda.

Experimentation beyond Netflix’s longtime core service of streaming TV shows and movies suggests that the company is eager to diversify its revenue streams. It launched its own gaming platform in November 2021.