If it announced its first theme park on Monday, today Netflix takes another step in its strategy to become a global entertainment giant at all levels. The company wants to “reinvent what it means to play together”, in the words of Alain Tascan, vice president of video games at Netflix, who explained in Helsinki the platform’s new strategy to succeed in interactive entertainment. The event served to present four new proprietary titles, detail how the company intends to integrate games into its platform and explain the philosophy of a company that, without trying to compete with traditional consoles, also wants to put its flag in the world of video games.
Netflix began its foray into video games in November 2021. That month, the company officially launched its mobile gaming section within its catalog. app. The first titles were relatively modest, many developed by external studios or small acquisitions, and included games based on their own series, such as Stranger things. The strategy was consolidated when the platform purchased the Finnish studio Next Games in March 2022, together with others such as Night School Studio (creators of Without oxen). Since then, the company has expanded its catalog, offering games without additional costs or advertising, as part of the general subscription to the platform. Now it is preparing to take the next evolutionary step: with more than 100 available, it is preparing dozens of new games, four of which will arrive on the platform this month directly from Helsinki.
“It’s a happy moment for the studio,” summed up Saara Bergström, general director of Next Games, in the Finnish capital, which opened its doors to the press for the first time. Founded in 2014 and acquired by Netflix three years ago, the studio is responsible for titles such as The walking dead (before being acquired by Netflix) or Stranger thingsthe latter being key to the rapprochement between the two companies. “We started in a single room and today we are a multi-game studio. We remain faithful to our initial spirit and Netflix allows us to maintain that Nordic flavor that I think our games have,” explained Bergström.
During the Helsinki presentation, to which Netflix invited EL PAÍS, four new games were announced, which reflect the different lines of development that Netflix intends to cover: Party destroyersa Christmas-style multiplayer title; Pictionary AND Bogglefocused on social experience. These three games are designed to be played by multiple people, with mobile phones and in front of the television screen. The fourth game is a new line of daily puzzles, with integrations from popular franchises such as Stranger things.
But the platform doesn’t want to have only casual games: the offer will be expanded on December 2nd with westerns Red Dead Redemptionone of the best games of all time (it came out in 2010), which will appear with a version optimized for mobile devices. The WWE fighting game will also be available on the platform, with equal visual power, and the company is also preparing Dead Man’s Daya narrative title inspired by Daggers in the backin which the director of the film, Rian Johnson, will participate.
“We want to push gaming in new directions,” said Alain Tascan, the company’s vice president of gaming. “Entertainment isn’t just about movies or series: 3 billion people around the world play games. Games tell stories and we are one of the best at telling stories.” Tascan explained that Netflix’s goal is not to compete with traditional consoles and computers, but rather to “integrate interactive entertainment,” creating accessible experiences “as easy to play as it is to watch a movie.” The platform indicates that the game strategy is a success, but as it does with audience data (it provides them only on rare occasions) it does not reveal the number of games played. “I can’t say exactly. Millions!” Tascan exclaims.
Play on any screen
One of the pillars of this strategy is technical integration. Users will be able to play the games presented in Helsinki on television using their mobile phone as a controller, by scanning a QR code that will appear on the screen. “We want to eliminate any friction: play when and where you want, without having to hardware Furthermore,” Tascan emphasized. This cross-platform approach represents a technical challenge. “We are pioneers,” Bergström admitted. “There is no instruction manual for this. We live in a disruptive era in the industry and that makes it uncomfortably exciting. We have to create, experiment and fail until we get something that makes sense in itself.” Not all TVs offer the same performance. According to Bergström, there are minimum specifications and variations in resolution depending on the model, even if the market trend is favorable: “Every year new TVs with better capabilities appear and this opens up new opportunities.”
Netflix intends to divide its gaming strategy into four main areas: children’s games, games mainstreammultiplayer party titles (those presented in Helsinki belong to this area) and narrative proposals. Unlike other models in the industry, Netflix does not plan to monetize games outside of its platform. “We want to bring all of our content together,” Tascan noted. Netflix also won’t offer internal microtransactions or paid content within games, at least at this stage. The goal is to strengthen user loyalty and increase usage time within the business ecosystem. “Imagine that you like a series and can play in the same environment. We aspire for people to enter and stay in our universe,” Tascan explained. In this sense the company is confident that the technical gap between consoles and mobile phones will continue to narrow. Netflix confirms that there will be localized versions for different markets, although the expansion will be gradual. This batch of games will initially appear in English and will be translated in the coming months.
The path to the total platform
The foray into video games is another step in Netflix’s evolution from its origins as a video store. Today, the company has more than 300 million subscribers worldwide and expects to earn more than $45 billion this year. In addition to producing and distributing its own audiovisual content, it offers live broadcasts – such as WWE fights or NFL games -, has acquired emblematic cinemas in the United States and, recently, opened its first theme park. In recent weeks it has even made an offer to acquire Warner Bros.
Netflix reinforces its final message: the future of entertainment will be hybrid. “It’s scary, but it’s also exciting,” admits Bergström, who sums up: “We are entering a new era of entertainment.” “We aspire to blur the line between linear and interactive content,” concludes Tascan. There’s nothing there.
