Netflix Inc. is creating its first in-house video games studio, in a push to be less reliable on third-party creators and to expand its gaming offerings.
The new studio will be based in Helsinki and headed by Marko Lastikka, according to a statement from Netflix released Monday. Lastikka previously spent more than five years at Zynga, where he worked on FarmVille 3, and before that was the co-founder and executive producer at Electronic Arts’ Tracktwenty studio in Helsinki, according to his LinkedIn page.
"This is another step in our vision to build a world-class games studio that will bring a variety of delightful and deeply engaging original games — with no ads and no in-app purchases — to our hundreds of millions of members around the world,” said Amir Rahimi, vice president of game studios at Neflix, in the statement.