Last year Netflix launched the Games Service, which allows subscribers of the streaming giant to download and play select Android and iOS games for free. 17 titles are available at the moment, but The Washington Post reports that the company aims to grow that list to nearly 50 games.
To be clear, we’re talking about games that run on your device, you just don’t have to buy them (similar to Apple Arcade) and there are no ads or in-app purchases. This isn’t a game streaming service like GeForce Now or Google Stadia.
It looks like the company will leverage vertical integration – it is developing both a mobile game and a TV show based on the Exploding Kittens board game. The mobile game is launching next month, the TV show is slated to premiere in 2023.
According to a source familiar with Netflix's plans, the streaming service is planning to stay within the mobile gaming space, but it is open to other avenues in the future. The source says Netflix is "looking at content opportunities around video games from every direction.” It’s not clear precisely what this means, but it may be that the company is considering a future move into game streaming at a later date.
Mobile games are the focus for now, and we should expect a lot more titles to drip feed out of the streaming service over the coming months. The company plans to have a strategy where it can continue adapting video games such as Cuphead, The Witcher, and League of Legends into TV shows. Then it can adapt its own shows into games similarly to how it did with Stranger Things: 1984. It's not entirely clear how you can play existing titles, so we recommend following our guide on how to download Netflix games if you want to try any of the existing 18 games out.
Oh.. never knew
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