Former Netflix Executive Joins Xbox | Game Rant
It's not unusual to see video game developers move between roles at different studios as opportunities arise. For instance, former Perfect Dark reboot design director Drew Murray joined Insomniac Games last month. Sometimes new roles are filled by professionals who have experience in alternative realms of entertainment, as seen by former Netflix executive Marcos Waltenberg announcing he joined Xbox yesterday.
Someone like Waltenberg moving from Netflix to Xbox is seemingly more straight forward than another recent, major acquisition announcement; Activision Blizzard hiring President George Bush counterterrorism expert Frances F. Townsend earlier this month. Waltenberg has been Director of Partner Marketing for Netflix since December 2017, according to LinkedIn, moving from the Asia/Pacific region to Latin America, and then the US/Canada region in that time. Now he will be the Director of Xbox Global Partnerships for Microsoft.
This move was announced via a post to LinkedIn yesterday in which Waltenberg said he "can't wait to learn from teams behind the iconic Xbox brand, products, services and games..." While he credits his "countless stunning colleagues" at Netflix for contributing to a "fantastic" five years there, he said this will be a chance to do more great things during a period of change, growth, and opportunity in gaming.
Microsoft is one of the biggest tech companies on Earth, so it and its gaming-focused Xbox brand have a lot of partners in domestic and international affairs. Samsung's QLED televisions are official Xbox Series X partners, for example, at least in the United States and Canada. In terms of more global outreach, Microsoft partnered with LG Electronics to help market the Xbox Series X in Europe, Africa, the Middle-East, and the Asia/Pacific region when it launched last November.
It's unclear exactly what kind of partnerships Waltenberg will oversee based on his LinkedIn post, and the Microsoft job description on his profile page is currently empty. However, given his five years at Netflix while the company exploded in popularity, as well as his 12 years working for Fox before that, it seems he should have plenty to contribute to the Xbox team.
While the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have been just as hard to obtain as Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 for many fans, Microsoft and Team Xbox have been focusing on improving players' experiences. While the Xbox Game Pass library expands thanks to the addition of Bethesda and EA Play titles, more Xbox Series X games received quick resume functionality this week in a bid to keep Xbox on top of the market.
Source: LinkedIn
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