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Sheath your keyboards, Netflix are focusing on mobile games firstTheir first push into game development will be on small screens
Their first push into game development will be on small screens
In a shareholders letter, Netflix confirm what we heard last week about their plans to pack games in with all their usual programming. “We view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV,” they say. “Games will be included in members’ Netflix subscription at no additional cost similar to films and series.”
The Witcher: Season 2 Teaser Trailer | NetflixWatch on YouTube
The Witcher: Season 2 Teaser Trailer | Netflix
What kind of games though? It sounds like Netflix may have plans to take things slow. After dipping their toe in with the interactive show Bandersnatch and commissioning aStranger Things spinoff, Netflix are looking at phone screens for their first self-made games.
“Initially, we’ll be primarily focused on games for mobile devices,” Netflix say. “We’re excited as ever about our movies and TV series offering and we expect a long runway of increasing investment and growth across all of our existing content categories, but since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games.”
Further down in their report, Netflix dig into who exactly they’re competing with for the eyeballs of viewers. Unsurprisingly, games do show up in a fashion. “In the race to entertain consumers around the world, we continue to compete for screen time with a broad set of firms like YouTube, Epic Games and TikTok (to name just a few),” they say.
Also last week, references to the PlayStation-exclusive Ghost Of Tsushima and a shark iconwere datamined in the Netflix app. Those images havesince been removed, and were possibly placeholder, but could potentially point to some kind of partnership between Sony and Netflix—via their console applications, perhaps.
However the wind blows on game development itself, Netflix remain rather interested in gaming as a concept. They’ve now got two Witcher series and an animated film on the way, the recentResident Evilshow that Alice B says isactually amazing, the League Of Legends show, and an absolute ton of other video game spinoffs.
