Over the past 18 months, consumers have
spent more time at home than ever before,
not only working, but socializing, learning
new skills, and playing games. Video gaming
as a whole saw a signiicant increase during
this period and the gaming platform Steam
recorded an all-time high of 23.6 million
average concurrent users in April 2020. A
year later, rival irms want a slice of the pie.
Following Apple’s expansion into gaming with
Arcade, Netlix is the latest player entering the
game, announcing its intention to launch its
own gaming titles.
NETFLIX EXPANDS INTO GAMING
After months of rumors and speculation,
Netlix conirmed mid-July plans to expand
into mobile games, revealing that new
titles would be available to play as part of a
standard Netlix subscription. Days before its
announcement, the company hired former
EA and Oculus exec Mike Verdu, and revealed
to investors that it was “in the early stages of
further expanding into games, building on
our earlier eforts around interactivity (eg,
Black Mirror Bandersnatch) and our Stranger
Things games. We view gaming as another
new content category for us, similar to our
expansion into original ilms, animation, and
unscripted TV.”
“Games will be included in members’ Netlix
subscription at no additional cost similar to
ilms and series,” the company added. “Initially,
we’ll be primarily focused on games for mobile
devices. We’re excited as ever about our movies
and TV series ofering and we expect a long
runway of increasing investment and growth