In the cutthroat streaming world, OTT giant Netflix boasts of one differentiating factor and a potential trump card under its arsenal that its rival OTT platforms don’t (until now). It’s their expanding gaming division. Even Netflix knows that and is evidently quite serious about it.
In November 2021, the OTT giant had diversified beyond its staple programming of movies and TV shows portfolio to the largely untapped gaming territory with the launch of five small games. Netflix’s intention of betting big on their gaming division became even more evident by the day.
As of now, the Netflix gaming library consists of action games like Asphalt Xtreme, Stranger Things: 1984, mystery games like Twelve Minutes, strategy games like The Queen’s Gambit Chess, and simulation games like Too Hot to Handle: Love is a Game, amongst many others.
However, despite a good number of titles under its gaming portfolio, Netflix still does not have big-ticket and massively mounted games. The current games can be downloaded and played on mobile devices by casual gamers. So, until now, there is nothing as such for hardcore gamers. It’s probably because the streaming giant wants to slowly and steadily move forward and tap the untapped gaming segment in a big way. But it looks like Netflix is all set to change gears now.
As per a recent report by Wall Street Journal, Netflix is “deepening its push into the video game industry”. From its currently available small mobile games portfolio, Netflix is now planning to create bigger and better games which can be played on PCs and televisions.
Not just that, Netflix is purportedly brainstorming over capitalizing on their immensely popular existing original series like ‘Squid Game’, ‘Black Mirror’, and ‘Wednesday’ and creating higher end games based on them. It’s even considering making games on their original explosive action film ‘Extraction’ and the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ series.
The concept of films and shows based on popular games like Resident Evil, Uncharted, and The Last of Us has stood the test of time. But the notion of games based on streamer’s original properties is innovative and has massive potential.
It would be interesting to see whether Netflix games can be the next big thing for the OTT world and whether betting big on its gaming portfolio will yield rich dividends for the OTT platform in the future. For doing that, they should live up to the high standards set by the shows. But one thing is for sure – in case Netflix games click big time with OTT subscribers, then Netflix will certainly benefit from the first movers’ advantage. Because no other OTT platform seems to be going in that direction.
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