A deal between Netflix and Xbox has supposedly fallen through because of one minor quibble: Netflix wanted to adapt the console maker’s games for $500m, not $800m.
That’s according to Puck News’ Matt Belloni, who reports that Netflix offered Xbox $500m to exclusively licence the company’s games and turn them into streamable films or TV shows for the next seven years.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and the division’s business affairs team then responded with an eye-watering counter offer, according to the report. Xbox supposedly asked the streamer for $800m to sign off on the same deal.
Former Netflix CCO Bela Bajaria reportedly approached the game publisher first, but the executive’s departure and Xbox’s expensive counter offer led to the deal falling apart. Netflix CFO Spence Neumann was apparently one of the streamer’s top heads who thought the deal wasn’t worth the $800m price tag.
It’s unclear which games would’ve been included in the film and TV deal considering multiple Xbox brands are already on their way to screens both big and small. Amazon is working to adapt Wolfenstein into a live-action series and will soon debut the third season of its acclaimed Fallout show, for example, while Paramount is turning Call of Duty into a blockbuster movie.
Netflix and Xbox are still working together on other projects, though. Animated shows based on Minecraft and Diablo are already in the works, as is a live-action Gears of War film. Blizzard Entertainment president Johanna Faries recently teased the crowd at BlizzCon 2026 by suggesting Overwatch and Warcraft could receive a similar treatment, too.
“We have received record-breaking interest in our IP,” Xbox said in a statement to Puck News. “Netflix is a valued partner and we are excited for the forthcoming release of our Minecraft and Diablo animated series together, among other adaptations.” The outlet claims Xbox is continuing to pursue smaller licensing deals.
Game adaptations are all the rage right now. This year’s excellent Resident Evil reboot, Illuminations’ Super Mario Bros duology, HBO’s The Last of US, Amazon’s Fallout and three live-action Sonic The Hedgehog films have found huge success – and encouraged practically every major studio to go hunting for their own game licenses. They’re not all hits, however. This year’s Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat 2 were released to a more tepid crowd.