Netflix online gaming is the next big thing in the streaming industry

Netflix's vice president of gaming, Mike Verdu, revealed two specific details concerning the streaming giant's entry into games at TechCrunch Disrupt. He stated that   Netflix is "seriously researching a cloud gaming offering."  Additionally, the business will launch a fresh gaming studio in Southern California.

“It’s a value add. We’re not asking you to subscribe as a console replacement,” Verdu. “It’s a completely different business model. The hope is over time that it just becomes this very natural way to play games wherever you are.”

However, he did disclose that Netflix is expanding its internal studio in Southern California in order to speed up its game production. The list also includes Boss Fight Entertainment, Night School Studio, and Finland's Next Games, all of which, according to TechCrunch, are built to develop games that cater to various preferences.

The announcement follows a difficult year for Netflix (NFLX), which reported losing members, the first time in the past ten years, and had its stock fall more than 60% in 2022 due to a general market decline. Tom Forte, the senior research analyst at D.A. Davidson, said he views the shift into gaming as a proof of the streaming giant "playing offense, not just defense," despite ongoing cost-cutting initiatives.

Considering the amount of time individuals spend playing and streaming video games, Forte noted that Netflix was exceptionally adept in sensing soon enough that gaming was a competitive threat to their audience. This transition also gives Netflix another option to make money off of some of its more well-known franchises, including the "Stranger Things" television show.

 

Former "Overwatch" executive producer Chacko Sonny will serve as the studio's director in California. "Overwatch" was a huge hit at Blizzard Entertainment, earning billions of dollars. Following an SEC investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and discrimination at the gaming company, Sonny made his resignation from Blizzard public last year.

In an attempt to sell video games that gamers can play without having a costly computer or console, Google's Stadia and Amazon's Luna both made a similar move. However, these services have had trouble becoming widely used. Google just announced that Stadia would be discontinued in January 2023.

“While Stadia’s approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a strong technology foundation, it hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected so we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service,” said Stadia VP and GM Phil Harrison, in a blogpost.

According to a blog post by Netflix's VP of Game Studios, Marko Lastikka, a seasoned executive from gaming behemoths Zynga and Electronic Arts, will lead the new game firm.

With Monday's announcement, Netflix now has four gaming studios in total. The business had already purchased Night School Studio and Boss Fight Entertainment in addition to Next Games. Rahimi from Netflix claimed that each studio has "different strengths and focus areas" and that they will work together to create a wide range of games for Netflix subscribers.

 While not yet accessible on other consoles, Netflix games can be assessed and played on Android smartphones and tablets as well as on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Offerings include "Stranger Things: 1984," a classic adventure game, and "Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story."

According to Apptopia data, 1.63 million users played Netflix games every single day in the previous month. This amount only accounts for a miniscule portion of the 220 million paid subscribers of the company which have been downloaded almost 30 million times worldwide.