Netflix Takes “More Strategic” Approach, Ramping Up Dev Partnerships

Netflix is planning a “more strategic” approach moving forward as it related to growing their games offering and announcing new developer partnerships.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, Netflix announced a number of upcoming releases during a briefing for selected press, which included:

• an exclusive game from Vainglory developer Super Evil Megacorp based on an unannounced upcoming Netflix IP is in the works
• Ustwo Games’ Monument Valley and its sequel, due to be added to Netflix’s games collection sometime next year. Addiitonally, Ustwo CEO Maria Sayans hinted that more Monument Valley games may be in the works as well.
• New Too Hot To Handle game from Nanobit, building on the success of its previous title based on the titular dating show with the sequel expected to launch later this year
• An April 18th launch day is currently set for Mighty Quest: Rogue Palace, a Netflix-exclusive spin-off from Ubisoft’s Mighty Quest For Epic Loot and the second of three Ubisoft games in the works for Netflix streaming platform.
• 40 games are currently slated for release throughout 2023, which adds to the 55 that have been launched, in total, since November 2021.

Netflix has a total of 86 games in the works, 16 of which are being handled by their in-house studios, and another 70 titles are being developed by their third-party partners.

“We’re still in the early days of our games journey, and the number of members who know about and play our games continues to grow,” Netflix’s vice president for external games Leanna Loombe said, adding that Netflix is “really proud of our progress so far.”

“At the beginning of our journey in November 2021, our focus was speed to market and creating opportunities for valuable learning. With those learnings we are now able to be more strategic around how we build out a portfolio of games that appeals to our millions of members.”

“We don’t have full plans to share right now, but as you can imagine we do want Netflix games to be playable on every Netflix device you have and how the mobile app stores and streaming come together is something we are continuing to work out the plan for.”

“We do believe cloud gaming will enable us to provide that easy access to games on any screen, and be frictionless and provide that accessibility into gaming experiences,” Loombe said.

“But we do want to be super thoughtful about how we do that and how we bring it to our members, so just like we’re doing for mobile games, we will take it slowly, take it from a learning perspective, but that is definitely underway.”

Stay tuned for more regarding Netflix’s focus on gaming.