Netflix has revealed more about its plans for consistent releases on its nascent Games platform.
During a July 18th earnings call, Netflix executives were asked for an update on its gaming initiative. In response, Netflix confirmed that over 80 games are in development on top of the 100 that have already been released.
On top of that, Netflix says it wants to continue to explore the synergy between its original movies and shows and the games it’s releasing. To that point, the company plans to launch “about one new title per month” into Netflix Stories, its hub for “interactive fiction” games based on Netflix IP. This includes games based on the likes of Selling Sunset, Perfect Match and Emily in Paris. Netflix will also continue to develop games from different genres, like Stranger Things: 1984 and the upcoming The Dragon Prince: Xadia, but it intends for a monthly release for the “choose-your-own-adventure” style Stories titles.
“It’s pretty rare for the new content vertical like this to actually complement or draft off of each other. So every
once in a while, we get something like Squid Game: The Challenge following Squid Game, the scripted series. But I think our opportunity here to serve super fandom with games is really fun and remarkable,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-CEO of the Stories push.
“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 materialize in the next season or in the sequel to the film. It’s a really great opportunity and a rare one where 1 and 1 equals 3 here. And to kind of replicate some of the success we’ve seen building fandom and with live events and consumer products, this actually fits really nicely into that. So I’m really excited to see where this goes.”
So far, Netflix Games have purely been Android and iOS titles, but the company does have ambitions to expand to AAA offerings. For instance, the company tapped legendary Halo designer Joseph Staten to work on a big new IP last year. It’s also been testing streaming to TVs, PCs and Macs. However, the company also acknowledges that its gaming efforts are still early days, noting that its “investment level in games relative to our overall content spend is also quite small.”
Still, the company claims it’s “happy with the progress” it’s seen so far, despite reports that few people are playing Netflix Games. During the earnings call, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said the gaming platform’s performance has actually been exceeding expectations.
“We’ve had set ourselves pretty aggressive engagement growth targets. And we’ve met those, exceeded those in many cases. In 2023, we tripled that engagement,” said Peters. “We’re looking good in our engagement growth in ’24, and we’ve set even more aggressive growth goals for ’25 and ’26.”
While there’s no way to verify how many people are playing Netflix Games, it should be noted that the service does have quite a few inarguably acclaimed titles. Some of these marquee games include Hades, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy, Death’s Door, TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and Oxenfree II: Lost Signals.
Image credit: Netflix
Source: Netflix
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