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Netflix confirmed its plans to enter the video game industry by introducing free mobile games to its subscribers, with an extension to its TV series and movies, on June 20th, in a letter to shareholders.
Netflix has produced a wide variety of TV shows, movies and animated series, dominating the online streaming service market. Now, the hiring of Mike Verdu, a former Facebook and Electronic Arts executive, as Netflix’s vice president of game development, has made the company’s expansion to the gaming industry evident.
Moreover, back in 2019, in an earnings letter, Netflix mentioned that its competitors weren't restricted to gaming platforms like HBO, but also included video games like Fortnite. Thus, bringing games will help the firm to expand its market and bring growth.
In the shareholders’ letter, Netflix briefed about their market expansion to the video game industry. They stated:
“We’re also in the early stages of further expanding into games, building on our earlier efforts around interactivity (eg, Black Mirror Bandersnatch) and our Stranger Things games. We view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV. Games will be included in members’ Netflix subscription at no additional cost similar to films and series. Initially, we’ll be primarily focused on games for mobile devices. 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.”
Netflix to have its original content for video game adaptation
The success of interactive content such as "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" (2018) has also been one of the reasons for the company to bring more such content.
Moreover, Netflix recently released TV shows based on video games, such as "The Witcher" (2019-2021), "Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness" (2021), and "DOTA Dragon’s Blood" (2021). Both the TV shows have gained tremendous popularity and now, the streaming giant is also planning to bring the second season of the "DOTA Dragon’s Blood". The League of Legends animated TV event series, Arcane, and the Splinter Cell series are also expected to be released in the future.
The streaming giant will be licensing some of its original series to develop games like they have done before for "Stranger Things." Netflix is most likely to bring story-based games, as they will be based on their TV shows, movies and animated series. There will be a separate category from games.
Netflix to have mobile games at no additional cost
People with Netflix subscriptions will not have to pay any additional cost to enjoy games. The games will be made dedicated to mobile devices, as the company is at their “early stages of further expanding into games.”
Previously, Greg Peters, the chief operating and product officer, said:
“We're trying to figure out what are all these different ways...we can deepen that fandom, and certainly games are a really interesting component of that...There's no doubt that games are going to be an important form of entertainment and an important modality to deepen that fan experience.”
There has been no such statement about the games coming to other devices like PCs or consoles.
Netflix might partner with PlayStation
There have been rumors about Netflix collaborating with PlayStation on adaptations of games to streaming. The streaming giant might collaborate and bring video game-related content based on some of the popular PlayStation games.
On Twitter, the popular dateminer named Steve Moser shared images of both the "Ghost of Tsushima Box" art and some PS5 controllers on July 15th. This indicates a partnership between the two brands to bring content based on "Ghost of Tsushima" to the streaming platform. The dataminer has also suggested the Netflix’s gaming section be codenamed "Shark." Moser also discovered that Sony might be ready to give their exclusive content to Netflix, however, nothing has been officially confirmed.
