Netflix is intensifying its efforts in the games market: the streaming service is founding its own developer studio in Finland, and there are now gamer tags.
Netflix continues to expand its presence in the gaming market. The streaming service wants to build its own developer studio in Helsinki. Netflix promises that “world-class” games will be created there – without advertising and in-app purchases. The games will be made available on Netflix Games, the gaming section of the Netflix subscription.
For gamers, Netflix is now also introducing the option of securing gamer tags. This refers to pseudonyms with which users can compete against each other in online games, for example. Netflix refers to this name as an “alias” and it is displayed instead of the account name when gaming.
The player name can be set in the Netflix mobile app as soon as you open a game with multiplayer functions. Anyone who starts “Into the Breach”, for example, can create an alias when selecting a profile. With “Rival Pirates” or “Lucky Luna” you are even actively asked to type in a gamer tag.
Netflix Games is set to grow
Netflix Games has so far supplemented the classic Netflix subscription with films and series: the offer is included in the standard Netflix subscription and cannot be booked separately. It is primarily aimed at mobile devices, the included games are mobile games. They are run locally on the phone or tablet.
Netflix sees video games as an opportunity to reach more users. The company is spending money on this: Among other things, it has bought the former indie development studios Next Games (“Stranger Things: Puzzle Quest”) and Night School Studio (“Oxenfree”). Netflix paid 65 million euros for Next Games.
Meanwhile, Netflix’s games offer is still in a difficult position among its subscribers: According to the data platform Apptopia, Netflix games are only used 1.7 million times a day on average – by a fraction of the 221 million Netflix subscribers worldwide.
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