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Netflix readies video games push with hire of Oculus exec

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By Jennifer Faull

Netflix is expanding into gaming opportunities

Netflix is set to bring video games to its platform next year having made its first key hire to lead the push.

Mike Verdu was previously head of virtual and augmented reality at Facebook, where he worked with developers to bring games and other content to Oculus.

Prior to that, he spent his career leading the gaming efforts at companies including EA, Zynga and Kabam.

He will now lead Netflix’s push into creating content beyond TV shows and films. Netflix hasn’t been shy in talking up its ambition to be a major player in the $90bn video games industry.

It’s likely that some games will be tied to its most popular shows, such as Stranger Things. On its most recent earnings call, chief operating officer Greg Peters – who Verdu will report to – said its users “want to immerse themselves more deeply and get to know the characters better and their back stories and all that stuff”.

He said: “Really we’re trying to figure out what are all these different ways that we can increase those points of connection, we can deepen that fandom. And certainly, games is a really interesting component of that.

“And there’s no doubt that games are going to be an important form of entertainment and an important sort of modality to deepen that fan experience. So we’re going to keep going, and we’ll continue to learn and figure it out as we go.”

According to Bloomberg, which first reported Verdu’s hire, the first games are slated to appear on the platform within the next year. Rather than sitting on a separate site, they will appear alongside current content as a new programming genre. It is not expected that users will be charged extra to access games.

The move into gaming comes as Netflix continued to battle it out against Amazon Prime and Disney+ for new users in the competitive streaming market.

Netflix reported a dramatic slowdown in subscribers for the first three months of 2021.

As a result of the pandemic, it added 36 million subscribers in 2020 to pass 200 million subscribers worldwide. It predicted the surge would continue this year and said it expected to add six million users to the platform in the first quarter of the year. However, it only managed to add four million and now expects to add about one million subscribers in the current quarter, which would be its slowest growth on record.

By Jennifer Faull

Sourced from The Drum

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Virtual Reality Games Just Went to Holodeck Level

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The future is now, old man.

By Nicole Buckler

The future of media is insane. Take for example, virtual reality. When the first commercially-available headsets hit the market, what’s the first thing we all did? We tried them with VR porn, because we are all randy animals at heart. And that was cool for five minutes. But now, there’s even better stuff we can do with VR. Much, much better stuff.

VR play rooms, like an early kind of holodeck, are being built all over the world. Australia and Japan have had wild success with theirs, and now some entrepreneurs in the USA have been licensed to open two new locations in America. We can only pray to one of the current 2,5000 deities that someone will bring it to Ireland and fast. We have a lot of rainy days here, and this is the indoor hero that we need and deserve.

The VR arenas allow a group of friends to play together in a virtual world. And. IT. LOOKS. AWESOME.

The company licensed to open the U.S. locations, MindTrek VR, say the newly-opened arena has been hugely popular. And so far, as a new media experience, they seem to be killing it.  This is a game that doesn’t feel like a game. The player’s mind believes it’s real, because the digital and real world are meshed seamlessly together. When the player moves, the game moves with them.

Within MindTrekVR’s free-roam gaming arenas, players can battle with zombies, robots and drones in Zombie Survival, or negotiate virtual mazes and digital netherworlds in Singularity and Engineerium.

The VR software that drives the game, called Zero Latency, is a patent-pending motion tracking system. They are a Melbourne-based tech company and a global leader in VR gaming. The software allows large groups of up to 16 people wearing portable virtual reality gear to interact and participate simultaneously in digital games in a wide-open space. The games are seamlessly controlled, enhanced and modified in real-time by on-site gaming engineers.

Brad Wurtz, David Rzepski, and David O’Connor are behind the U.S. version of MindTrek VR. The trio of entrepreneurs all come from a business and entertainment background. “Virtual reality at home can be isolating and sharing the experience with a group in our gaming arenas is a real game-changer,” O’Connor says. “MindTrek is a leader in transforming the virtual reality gaming landscape to make it a social experience.”

The entrepreneurs have previously invested in a variety of ventures, including SkyZone trampoline parks, bowling alleys, bars, and nightclubs, rum manufacturing and real estate. These guys are all about the bringing the fun. And I for one hope they bring it here.

Want to keep tabs on the company? You can follow them on Twitter

 

 

 

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Want Your Band to be Famous? Then Get Your Music on Video Games

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There’s a whole genre of music that has grown inside the world of gaming. Many now-famous bands got their mainstream breakthrough thanks to this process. So if you have a band, you need to read this.

By Nicole Buckler

The symbiotic relationship between music and video games is now so established that a games studio called Bugbear Entertainment is searching for bands to submit music to them. The winning tunes will be played inside their latest racing game: Wreckfest.

Bugbear Entertainment specialises in action driving. They have been making car games for sixteen years, starting with Rally Trophy. They are best known for the critically acclaimed demolition racing series FlatOut (2004-2007, PC, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360) and street racing title Ridge Racer Unbounded (2013, PC, PS3, Xbox 360).

As of yesterday, Bugbear are calling for bands everywhere to send in their tunes to accompany gamers while they race and smash the crap out of each other in their latest game. The winning prize is $3,500 and there are nine runner-up prizes of $1,000 per track. But it is not the money that’s the real prize: it is exposure to their gamers that is the real coup. There are hundreds and thousands of them.

The winning music will be featured on games released on Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC. Bands featured in previous Bugbear releases have included upcoming indie bands and household names like Megadeth, Rob Zombie, Fall Out Boy, Audioslave and Skrillex.

So if you have a band, get on it. You can apply here.

Want to check out the competition? You can listen to the other entries here.

This innovative approach to sourcing music is evidence of a growing realisation amongst game designers, that there are thousands of unheard of bands out there. According to Bugbear, “They just need the right chance to have their music heard internationally, and by the right demographic to get to that critical mass of fans to push them to the next level of popularity.”

For more established bands like Megadeth, putting their music inside high-selling video games offers a symbiotic relationship. Gaming studios can promote Megadeth music to their gamers, and Megadeth’s fans might be more open to buying games that have their favourite tunes in it. It’s a match made in cross-promotion heaven.

Bugbear is very interested in getting the sound right for their games, which is why they are letting their gamers cast their votes on the tracks they want to hear while playing the game. Happy customers, more sales. Well, in theory, anyway.

Music has always been a vital part of the gaming experience. The aim of Wreckfest is to create an immersive experience for the player, one where the in-game radio feeds the road rage in all of us. While you can blast your tunes out on your REAL car radio, you can’t smash the crap out of other drivers while doing so. But, in Wreckfest, you can. What’s not to like? Smashing other people up and decent tunes? It’s win-win.

The Wreckfest title will be published soon by THQ Nordic. While it is not yet for sale, you can have a little preview play of it here.

Drivers…start your engines.

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