Over the last few weeks, Netflix has been in turmoil. The company’s stock depreciated by more than a third of its value after reporting its first quarterly loss of subscribers in a decade. After pulling its services from Russia, following its invasion of Ukraine, Netflix lost over 700,000 subscribers. Furthermore, with the recent news that the company will be increasing its prices, allegedly introducing advertisements, and has plans to crack down on password sharing, many others have begun to leave the platform.
However, Netflix appears to have a plan: It’s betting big on gaming. The company will be expanding its mobile gaming services to appeal to a broader audience and maintain its dominance within the streaming market. Will this bold move save Netflix or is it too little too late?
Netflix announced its plans to enter the gaming industry back during E3 2019. Since then, it has purchased three game studios — Boss Fight Entertainment, Next Games and Night School Studio. A range of mobile games can now be found on the platform, from role-playing adventures like Stranger Things: 1984 to classic time-wasters such as Dominoes Café.
Netflix currently has dozens of titles that subscribers can player at no additional cost without microtransactions or advertisements. In fitting with the company’s approach to establishing a broad range of content, the games manage to appeal to all genders, ages, and skill levels. However, as things stand so far, the library of games that Netflix has published is unlikely to draw the attention of hardcore gamers anytime soon.
Currently, Netflix is betting on the casual gamer to increase its subscriber base and enter the fray of the gaming world. While these games are certainly a nice addition for subscribers, Netflix’s library remains highly generic (even within the context of the mobile gaming market) and offers little, outside its Stranger Things titles, that might be considered a system seller. Consequently, if the platform continues on this trajectory, it seems highly unlikely that it will achieve the widespread success for which it’s hoping.
However, the company appears to be looking to develop titles that synergize with what their customers are watching. Netflix has recognized that taking their most popular shows and turning them into mobile games (or vice versa), is an excellent method of drawing in new customers and engaging with current fans of a franchise. Although Netflix’s library is certainly a little bland at this moment in time, this will almost certainly change as it acquires the resources necessary to develop unique titles based on their current intellectual properties.
With recent mergers such as Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard and Sony purchasing Bungie, Netflix is seemingly experiencing an episode of FOMO and wants to jump on the gaming bandwagon to diversify its portfolio. This addition will almost certainly resonate with certain individuals. However, it seems unlikely that this alone will be enough to save the streaming giant from its current decline.
Ultimately, Netflix has far bigger problems than a lack of mobile games. The service is facing more competition within the streaming market than ever before, with Disney, Apple and Amazon all producing a range of high-quality original shows. While the introduction of gaming offers a new area of exploration for the platform and maybe a promising venture in the long run, it alone is unlikely to bring in the customers needed to stay ahead of the pack.
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