Netflix Walked Away: Xbox Wanted $800 Million for Its Games

A $300 million valuation gap over seven-year adaptation rights caused the deal to fail after Bela Bajaria left Netflix.

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Netflix reportedly offered Microsoft $500 million for seven years of exclusive film and TV adaptation rights to Xbox games, but the talks never reached a deal. According to Matthew Belloni, who reported it in his Puck newsletter citing three sources, the offer came from Bela Bajaria, then Netflix's chief content officer. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and her business affairs team countered at $800 million for the same seven years, leaving a $300 million gap that neither side closed.

The story ended with Bajaria's departure. She has been replaced by former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice, and with her gone the offer is said to be off the table. According to Puck's account, Netflix CFO Spence Neumann also thought the price was too high. Netflix has not commented. Xbox told Puck it has seen "record-breaking interest" in its IP and still considers Netflix a valued partner.

The talks, as the sources describe them, concerned one large package: a single exclusive deal to adapt many Xbox franchises. The context is a strategy Microsoft is reshaping. In August, Xbox was reportedly pitching Hollywood a single package covering more than a dozen properties, with Netflix, Paramount and Universal among the companies considering it. Now, Xbox would prefer smaller deals with more partners. That is the same direction set by XP, the division announced in early October and led by Kayleen Walters, which brings together film, TV, fan products and live events, while games remain the core of the franchises.

Existing collaborations are not in question. Netflix is preparing animated Minecraft and Diablo series and a Gears of War film. The case shows how much adaptation rights now cost in platform negotiations. For Xbox, which is trying to offset its hardware crisis with new revenue, every IP now has an explicit market value. For Netflix, walking away means not locking in a seven-year exclusive on a catalogue of franchises that, for now, remains with Microsoft. What comes next depends on the smaller deals Xbox is trying to close.

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