But in April, Peters signaled that Netflix's interest in gaming may be advancing. The company has flirted with games before, through its interactive, choose-your-own-adventure-style programming like Bandersnatch and through some licensing and merchandising partnerships. Netflix had hinted recently that it was interested in stepping up its pursuit of gaming. "There's a rich opportunity to continue to deliver and advance the technical capability to improve the quality of game experiences we can deliver across the range of devices," Greg Peters, Netflix's chief operating and product officer, said Tuesday. But Netflix, alongside YouTube, is the world's leader in streaming video, with a long track record of doggedly improving the quality of its video streaming even over weaker connections. Netflix didn't specifically define its initiative as cloud gaming. In India, it offers a mobile-only plan for roughly $3 a month (199 rupees), and it plans to expand those cheap, mobile plans to more emerging markets. In the US, it has three tiers priced at $9, $14 and $18. Netflix has one service with multiple tiers, which all access the same catalog but can unlock perks like additional simultaneous streams and better video quality the more you pay. Netflix games will be part of your overall subscription, in the same way that the company started making and streaming horror movies and reality TV shows alongside high-brow drama series as part of same Netflix membership. And it'll explore making games based on media existing outside Netflix's galaxy - imagine a Netflix game based on a book series or comic.Īt the outset, Netflix games won't have ads, they won't include in-game purchases and you won't have to buy individual titles. The company said it'll experiment with making games based on existing Netflix franchises so fandoms dive deeper into their favorite stories and characters, but it'll also try standalone games that are wholly original, potentially spawning spinoff shows or movies themselves. On Tuesday, Netflix didn't specify timing of its gaming initiative, noting only that it's in the "early stages" and that it's a "multiyear effort." A Bloomberg report last week said Netflix planned to expand into games within the next year. That would include gaming consoles like Xbox and PlayStation, as well as desktop computers and connected TVs. Mobile games will be Netflix's primary focus, but executives said Tuesday that all the devices that Netflix already supports are candidates for its games. "We think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games," Netflix said Tuesday. Others offer their gaming services as standalone products, typically also offered in a bundle with a bunch of other memberships. And Apple, which makes its own films and TV shows for Apple TV Plus, also widened into Apple Arcade.īut Netflix would be unique by making games part of its one and only subscription. Google, parent of YouTube, has put money into its own Stadia game-streaming service. Amazon, which operates Prime Video, has invested in Luna, its cloud gaming service, and has its own gaming studio. Netflix isn't alone in this gaming expansion. The global market for video games was estimated to be worth nearly $178 billion last year and is expected to eclipse $200 billion in 2023. A surge in interest during the pandemic last year bolstered it into a bigger market than movies and North American sports combined. The company has repeatedly called out gaming phenoms like Fortnite, as well as user-generated-video powerhouse YouTube, as some of its toughest competition because of the massive amount of entertainment hours they command worldwide.Īnd the gaming industry is an economic powerhouse. As Netflix has grown, it's long pointed out that its competition extends beyond the traditional TV and movie companies that go head-to-head with it now. The move into gaming widens Netflix from its bedrock business of TV shows and movies as the world's biggest subscription video service. That product, he noted, is an all-in-one subscription that will include games. "We're a one-product company," co-CEO Reed Hastings said Tuesday during a discussion of the company's second-quarter earnings. Netflix was clear about one thing its gaming won't be, at least not at first: a new way to charge you money. In its biggest expansion into a new kind of entertainment since it started streaming in 2007 and released its first original show in 2012, Netflix sketched out broad ambitions for gaming, indicating it ultimately envisions pursuing console games for Xbox and PlayStation too. Netflix confirmed Tuesday that it'll expand into video games, starting with ad-free games for mobile devices like phones and tablets available on its existing service at no added cost to subscribers.
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