Already well established in the field of video games, with a catalog of titles playable on mobiles included in the subscription, Netflix now wishes to explore the cloud gaming. In any case, this is announced by the TechCrunch site, which was the organizer of a conference where Mike Verdu, the director of the video game branch of Netflix, spoke. Of course, the economic model was the first subject discussed:
“We’re not going to try to replace consoles, but to add our value. It’s a completely different business model. We hope that the cloud will become a very natural gaming model wherever we are.”
It is obviously the ghost of Stadia, due to close in three months, which hovers over the discussion. By launching itself as a premium service with a separate subscription system, Google had bet on a model that would supplant that of consoles, and very quickly broke its teeth on the reality of the market and the desires of players. . Mike Verdu is clear-sighted on the matter:
“Stadia was a technical success. It was fun to play on Stadia. But there were issues with the business model, that’s for sure.”
He also revealed that Netflix will be opening a new studio in Southern California. After the very new studio in Helsinki, opened last month, it will be the fifth development studio owned by Netflix. This new Californian pole will be led by Chacko Sonny, a former Overwatch producer who left Activision Blizzard in the summer of 2021.
“He could have done whatever he wanted, but he chose to come to Netflix”assures Mike Verdu. “People don’t randomly come to your company to be part of such a big project without feeling like they’re in it for the long haul, and for the right reasons.”
The stated desire is obviously to grow the catalog of games available on the platform. For now, Netflix subscribers can enjoy 35 different games at no extra cost, including the excellent Into the Breach, developed externally. But the soon to be five studios of the giant streaming are at work on 14 new titles created in-house, and Mike Verdu talks about 55 games coming soon to the platform. We have known since this summer that several Ubisoft games will be developed exclusively for Netflix, such as The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot 2, Valiant Hearts 2 or a new spin-off fromAssassin’s Creed. The idea, according to Mike Verdu, is to have “50% of titles developed internally by Netflix in the future catalog”. We are already talking about licensed games like SpongeBob SquarePants or Stranger Things.
It’s unclear exactly how Netflix plans to get into the game. cloud gaming : With a proprietary controller or existing peripherals? With a thin client or simply via the Netflix application present on most televisions and mobile phones? The possibilities are numerous, and the company’s partnerships with manufacturers could be valuable in making the practice of cloud gaming very simple. The main question will undoubtedly be whether an additional cost will apply compared to the normal subscription to Netflix. If the cloud gaming is just one more service included in the classic package, then the platform already benefits from tens of millions of potential users.
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