Is Netflix serious about games?
Netflix likely has its eyes on the pick-up-and-play, social and mobile games markets. Soon after entering the video game industry in 2021, they employed Mike Verdu to oversee their games department. Verdu was previously the chief creative officer at Zynga, who had success with social games like Zynga Poker and Words With Friends 2.
In 2011, Zynga Poker was the largest poker site in the world with 38 million players. Netflix has an even larger possible pool of users to draw from. As of the second quarter of 2024, Netflix had around 277.65 million paid subscribers worldwide.
But what games do Netflix have in development?
Netflix has over 80 games in development. These games are likely to include in-house and third-party games, with the split being unclear at the moment. The company’s game count already stands at over one hundred, though many of these are smaller in scope than the games yet to come.
With Verdu part of Netflix, it’s possible it may focus on casino games, which are hugely popular online. There is an array of online casino sites, many of them ready to start playing on with a minimum deposit of 10 dollars.
The variety of casino games – from traditional games, like blackjack and poker, to more modern adaptations that stream live dealers – fuel the popularity of these casino sites.
Netflix is planning to release a new game each month, and Fortune has said that the company “could be on its way to becoming one of the most prolific video game publishers in the industry.”
Part of Netflix’s big games plan is to build games released on its popular TV series. Eurogamer reported that Netflix’s co-CEO, president and director Theodore A Sarandos said, “I think our opportunity here to serve super fandom with games is really fun and remarkable. I think the idea of being able to take a show and give the superfan a place to be in between seasons and even beyond that, to be able to use the game platform to introduce new characters and new storylines or new plot twist events, now you could do those kind of things and then they can then materialise in the next season or in the sequel to the film.”
Sports games could accompany their popular sports documentary series like The Last Dance about the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, and Beckham about David Beckham’s time at soccer clubs Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, AC Milan, and Paris St Germain. Netflix may choose to add to their collection of puzzle games (like World of Goo) and RPGs.
What are the best Netflix games already out?
Oxenfree, one of Netflix’s third-party games (developed by Night School Studio), is a mystery game based on a group of young friends on an abandoned island. Its mechanics are pretty simple – you mostly move around and make dialogue choices – but its spooky atmosphere and characters makes it one of the more interesting Netflix games.
The game was also released on Android, iOS, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One, showing that Netflix is willing to compete with other platforms.
Football Manager 2024 Mobile, which is a more basic version of the deeply time-consuming (but addictive) desktop game, was available on Netflix this year. It’s a throwback to the simpler Championship Manager and Football Manager soccer management games of the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Back then, you could get through a season in a day or two, not yet saddled with the tasks of press conferences, private player chats and endless team talks. It doesn’t quite bring the rewards of the full game, but if you enjoy quicker matches and seasons, it’s a nice option.
SpongeBob: Get Cooking is a cooking game based on the beloved kids show – yeah, you guessed it – SpongeBob SquarePants, a few series of which are available on Netflix.
Forbes wrote that there “should be a psychological study into why these stress-inducing cooking games have exploded in popularity over the past few years. Why do people escape the drudgery of their everyday lives with games that require yet more drudgery?” Drudgery or not, it’s a really popular game with a 4.8/5 rating on Apple’s App Store.
Can Netflix really compete with other game developers?
It remains to be seen how many of their games will be made by third-party developers, which may have an impact on how successful Netflix is.
But the company has a gigantic user base to entice with new games. One draw of playing on Netflix rather than gaming consoles like Xbox and PlayStation may be that gamers won’t need to pay for an additional subscription fee (as they do for services like Microsoft’s Game Pass and Sony’s PlayStation Plus). You’re already paying for their TV series – why not sit down for a game or two?
The coming months will tell us how good Netflix’s bulging collection of games is going to be.