Everything about the money in this story is reported, not confirmed. The figures come from one well-sourced report — Puck’s Matthew Belloni, citing three sources — that neither Netflix nor Microsoft has verified. Netflix declined to comment on it. Microsoft told reporters it would not comment on specific bids or negotiations. What follows is that report, attributed at every step, plus the parts both companies have said out loud.
Half a billion dollars was reportedly not enough.
According to Belloni’s report in Puck (published October 23), Netflix’s then-chief content officer, Bela Bajaria, offered Microsoft $500 million for seven years of exclusive film and television rights to Xbox’s game franchises — a package reported to span series like Halo, Diablo, The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft. Per the report, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and Microsoft’s business-affairs team countered at $800 million — a $300 million gap. Netflix CFO Spence Neumann was reportedly among the executives who considered the counter too rich. The offer, per Puck, has since been taken off the table.
The deal reportedly died twice
The price was only the first problem. The executive who reportedly made the offer then lost her job.
Bajaria exited Netflix on October 15 — fired, per the reporting, amid weakening engagement numbers and a falling stock price — in a shakeup that reportedly came alongside roughly 1,000 layoffs. Belloni, who first reported her ouster, reported that the Xbox offer was withdrawn in the aftermath. She is being replaced by Peter Rice, a veteran of Disney and Fox, who starts as chief content officer next week and is expected, per the report, to pursue more franchise IP deals of his own.
In other words: the reported deal died of that disagreement, and then its champion was gone, and there was nobody left at Netflix to revive it.
What the companies actually said
Netflix declined to comment on the report. Microsoft’s on-record response — the statement it gave to Puck and Kotaku — is worth reading in full, because it confirms the heat without confirming a single number: “We won’t comment on specific bids or negotiations. We have received record-breaking interest in our IP; our priority is the right creative partner and release model for every franchise and project. Netflix is a valued partner and we are excited for the forthcoming release of our Minecraft and Diablo animated series together, and among other adaptations.”
No confirmation of $500 million. No confirmation of $800 million. But also no denial — and a pointed reminder that the two companies are already in business together.
The pivot is already visible
Per Puck’s report, Xbox is now pursuing smaller deals with more partners instead of one exclusive home — and you can already see the strategy operating. An animated Diablo series is in development at Netflix. A Minecraft animated series is coming to Netflix too (separate from the Warner Bros. film, whose sequel is in the works). Fallout’s second season is at Prime Video. A Call of Duty movie is set up at Paramount. Netflix already holds a deal for a Gears of War movie.
Earlier this month, Microsoft also stood up a dedicated arm for exactly this business: Xbox XP, covering film, TV, merchandise, theme parks and live events, run by Lucasfilm veteran Kayleen Walters — with a subdivision, Xbox Pictures, to develop film and TV projects from Xbox IP.
The Games Desk’s read: Strip away the zeroes and the reported story is simple. Five years ago, game adaptations were a punchline. Then a Minecraft movie and a Fallout series printed money, and suddenly every game library in the world became a film studio’s catalog. The reported Netflix offer — half a billion dollars, seven years, one buyer for everything — was the streaming wars pricing that catalog at its peak. Xbox reportedly looked at the number, named a higher one, and chose to sell its worlds piecemeal to everyone rather than wholesale to one partner.
If the reporting holds, the most valuable thing Xbox owns right now isn’t a console. It’s the shelf of stories sitting on top of it — and this month, per three sources and one very large number, everybody in Hollywood found out what Microsoft thinks that shelf is worth.
Sources · 5 sources
- Puck — Matthew Belloni, Oct 23, 2026 (three sources): the $500M offer, the $800M counter, the Bajaria firing and the reported withdrawal
- GameSpot — Xbox Wanted a Gargantuan Paycheck to Partner With Netflix On TV And Movies
- Kotaku — Xbox Reportedly Bungled $500 Million Netflix Deal
- InvenGlobal — Netflix offered Xbox $500m for exclusive film and TV rights, Puck reports
- Microsoft / Xbox — on-record statement to Puck and Kotaku, quoted in full above
Reported terms are unconfirmed by both companies as of publication. The secondary coverage above carries the same Puck report; it is not independent confirmation of the figures.
