There has been a firestorm in the news recently with another game company acquired by Netflix. What does it mean for gaming in general and Netflix specifically? Fortunately, Netflix has already announced its plans for the studios, and their actions definitely align with those. There is still a good chance that this could affect gaming in more ways than most people realize and is worth talking about.
Why is Netflix buying more gaming studios?
Netflix has continued to expand its gaming studio by purchasing yet another gaming studio. This now makes a total of four that have been acquired by the company, including its own. This seems to recruit more talent and gather more resources for their primary studio.
This does seem to suggest that they are planning on expanding their game catalog, and while Netflix has commented on this, it goes further than you would think. The whole reason for expansion on this level usually follows one of two paths. The first is to start producing a larger game using multiple studios and resources. The second is to start multiple game projects between the studios.
What are Netflix’s plans in the future for its games?
Within the past few years, Netflix has been making moves like this and then announced that it will increase its game catalog. Now Netflix has only a few games in that catalog and even fewer that you would recognize. They are phone games like Stranger Things 1984, which is the most well-known. However, this does not seem to be the limit of what Netflix would like to accomplish.
As I have stated in this article, it seems likely that Netflix will rev up its games somehow. They have also stated that they are only interested in developing properties they own or have access to. It is also stated that these games will be accessible by Netflix subscribers. This leads me to again believe that more game development will be underway as they might view this as a way to increase subscriptions.
This may have been the original purpose of Netflix getting into games. The recent loss in subscribers appears to be encouraging them to seek alternative features. It might very well be a possibility that they may try and market themselves as streaming for TV and movies in the next few years and multimedia as well.
How can this affect the market?
If Netflix were to take its business in a direction, it could have an interesting result in the gaming community. Both gaming passes and games that tie in with other media have been attempted before but never taken off. This could be because they were mostly done from the gaming side, I.e., Quantum break was a game first and then a show. But tieing media has a whole range of benefits, and trying to exploit that could give Netflix the new edge they need.
The impact of this on the gaming community could be interesting. Providing yet another alternative to PlayStation and Xbox stores and passes. It could also do this if they have exclusive games that won’t be available elsewhere. It could also impact how video game stories are taken in by the audience, as other situations and storylines could happen.
