Final yr Netflix put up a billboard on Los Angeles’s Sundown Boulevard to poke enjoyable at itself. It learn: “Wait, Netflix Has Video games?” The corporate is working arduous to clear up any confusion. It’s deepening its push into the videogame trade, benefiting from the studios it has acquired up to now two years to create extra titles based mostly on common Netflix films and TV reveals. WSJ: Although Netflix has to this point targeted on cell video games — which enchantment to informal players and may be downloaded on a smartphone or pill — it’s taking steps to increase into higher-end video games that may be streamed from TVs or PCs. That strategy would put it up in opposition to giants corresponding to Sony and Microsoft, which simply closed its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and would deliver some vital technical challenges.
Over the subsequent a number of months, Netflix subscribers will be capable to play video games on their cell gadgets based mostly on hits corresponding to Korean thriller “Squid Recreation” and supernatural comedy “Wednesday,” in keeping with individuals accustomed to the scenario. Equally, Netflix is discussing video games based mostly on “Extraction,” its Sherlock Holmes collection and its “Black Mirror” collection, the individuals mentioned. Whilst Netflix creates homegrown titles, it’ll proceed to license the well-known video games, from “Bloons TD 6” to “Basic Solitaire,” that at present make up its catalog. It has mentioned plans to launch a recreation inside the common action-adventure collection “Grand Theft Auto” from Take-Two Interactive Software program by way of a licensing deal, a number of the individuals mentioned. The technique rips a web page from the streaming big’s playbook in Hollywood, the place it constructed an viewers based mostly on reruns from different studios — corresponding to “Pals,” “The Workplace” and “Breaking Dangerous” — whereas gearing up equipment to churn out originals like “Home of Playing cards” and “Stranger Issues.”