We already know that Xbox has a lot of interest in expanding in the TV and film space in the years ahead, and according to a new report, Netflix was recently interested in spending a whopping $500 million on exclusivity in this space.
This is according to the folks at Puck, who say that as-per three sources, the offer was recently made to “exclusively license Xbox titles from Microsoft for film and TV adaptations: $500 million for seven years”.
It’s then said that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma tried to counter the offer at $800 million.
“$500 million for seven years. Xbox’s Asha Sharma and her business affairs team countered at $800 million…”
After this, Netflix content chief Bela Bajaria was let go in mid-October, and the offer was reportedly taken off the table. Instead, Xbox is now said to be “pursuing smaller deals with more partners”.
Xbox did actually respond to this report with a statement, although Netflix chose not to.
Xbox: “We have received record-breaking interest in our I.P.; Netflix is a valued partner and we are excited for the forthcoming release of our Minecraft and Diablo animated series together, among other adaptations.”
Obviously this is all just reported information, so you should take it with a pinch of salt. If true though, it does suggest that Xbox is attracting some serious bids when it comes to turning their IP into TV and movie adaptations.
You can see why Asha Sharma is so keen on it now! Xbox is sitting on a treasure trove of potentially successful movies and TV franchises, and we’ll have to wait and see what kind of deals spring up over the coming years.
