Netflix to produce more mobile games this year – report
Netflix is reportedly planning to release more mobile games this year.
A source familiar with the “company’s thinking” told The Washington Post that Netflix is “looking at content opportunities around video games from every direction. The news outfit said that Netflix will offer 50 mobile games by the end of the year.
The report furthered that Netflix’s move aims to turn “show-to-video-game pipeline on its head,” which includes the recently announced mobile game and animated series adaptation of popular card game, Exploding Kittens.
Last year, the streaming service took its first step into the video game space with the release of a number of mobile games on Android and iOS devices including Stranger Things: 1984 (BonusXP), Stranger Things 3: The Game (BonusXP), Shooting Hoops (Frosty Pop), Card Blast (Amuzo & Rogue Games), and Teeter Up (Frosty Pop).
Additionally, Netflix also added a variety of mobile games to its platform which include This Is A True Story (Frosty Pop), Shatter Remastered (PikPok), and Into The Dead 2: Unleashed (PikPok).
As part of its efforts to expand its gaming catalogue, Netflix also bought its third studio last month, adding Boss Fight Entertainment to its portfolio. Prior to this, the streaming service bought two studios: Night School Studio and Next Games.
“Boss Fight’s mission is to bring simple, beautiful, and fun game experiences to our players wherever they want to play,” said the founders of Boss Fight Entertainment.
“Netflix’s commitment to offer ad-free games as part of members’ subscriptions enables game developers like us to focus on creating delightful game play without worrying about monetization. We couldn’t be more excited to join Netflix at this early stage as we continue doing what we love to do while helping to shape the future of games on Netflix together,” said the studio.
“We're still in the early days of building great game experiences as part of your Netflix membership. Through partnerships with developers around the world, hiring top talent, and acquisitions like this, we hope to build a world-class games studio capable of bringing a wide variety of delightful and deeply engaging original games—with no ads and no in-app purchases—to our hundreds of millions of members around the world,” Netflix said.
The news about Netflix doubling down on its video game offerings came on the heels of the streaming service’s earnings call, which revealed that the company lost 200,000 of its subscribers in the first quarter.
Netflix said that some of the factors that affected its growth include increasing competition and password-sharing, saying that around 100 million households are sharing passwords with their relatives.
“We’ve got to compete, and we’ve got to continue to improve on the core service which is making TV series and films and now games that people really love,” co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos said. “That’s what we’re really focused on and that’s a thing we can continue to grow the business in. Now, we talked about being highly penetrated in some of those core markets with users, which means that it’s harder to get them to join Netflix if they are already using Netflix. So we’ve got to figure out these different models that we’re doing now to more effectively monetize that viewing.”