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Netflix’s most apt tagline, “See What’s Next,” couldn’t be more appropriate as the tech giant continues to foray into the vast world of gaming. Launched in 2021, Netflix gaming hasn’t quite managed equal footing in the market yet, but it’s not for lack of trying. Between launching indie hits like Twelve Minutes or Oxenfree, capturing bigger IP such as Street Fighter IV, attempting original AAA games, making developer acquisitions like Night School Studio, and crafting their own unique stories, it’s a wonder what will actually stick the landing for the entertainment behemoth.
During the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Netflix’s President of Games Alain Tascan, alongside Vice President of Games Technology and Portfolio Development Jeet Shroff, met with reporters to explain their strategy and upcoming innovations and tease new story-based IP.
“At Netflix, we have a mission to entertain people,” Tascan said. “Right now, we’re at least entertaining around 700 million people. Games are a natural next step to support and deliver on that vision. Games can keep people engaged between seasons, and [we can] capture them in new ways. We still have a lot of work to do on the gaming side and stay humble. I know it’s just the beginning but it’s a journey that we are committed to. We are not yet the Netflix of games, but that’s exactly where we are headed. [Gaming] is the biggest entertainment shift of our time over the last 30 years, and we have a massive opportunity to engage audiences now and in the future. When you see the younger generation interacting with new games in particular, we feel that we need to be there to offer them something to do that’s really interesting.”
Tascan and Shroff outlined their latest strategy to appeal to different styles of gaming and gamers. “Couchplay”—a term used by Shroff—is used to explain the accessibility factor of multiplayer and solo games that can be played on the TV and use a subscriber’s cellphone as a controller. The other points included sticking to interactive fiction based on Netflix reality shows, kid-friendly, and mainstream releases designed to reach the biggest possible audience.
For example, last year saw the release of the party royale mobile game Squid Game: Unleashed, which, like its tie-in series Squid Game, went on to hit record-breaking download numbers, becoming the number one action game on the App Store in 57 countries and number one free game in 24 countries. But mainstream doesn’t necessarily exclude originals, either. While at GDC, Netflix Games showcased Spirit Crossing by Spry Fox (which was acquired by Netflix in 2022), an upcoming adventure co-op life-simulation game that encourages players to work in tandem to cultivate their unique villages and habitats. “It’s about having a deeper connection with the players,” Tascan said. “Offering something fresh and new with new experiences and creating this only on Netflix. By the end of the year, we’re going to try to manufacture a few [new titles] that hopefully will surprise a lot of you.”
Another revelation at the Netflix Games demonstration was the Black Mirror Season 7 tie-in called Thronglets, made by Night School Studio (also acquired by Netflix in 2021). The game featured in Episode 4’s “Plaything,” which marks the return of Will Poulter’s character from the interactive Black Mirror special episode “Bandersnatch,” coaxes players to care for tamagotchi like pets and keep them alive so they can fulfill their secret mission. The cutesy game soon becomes nightmarish as they replicate at tremendous speeds, which makes keeping them alive and gathering resources hard to manage. Even though Netflix has launched games generally based around their IP, this is the first time a game is episode-centric.
“A lot of the early conversation was [about Black Mirror level expectations]. We can’t just do a standard game. It has to have some element that’s possibly unexpected or looks like it’s going one way and then another. There was a juxtaposition of making it look as cute as possible and having quite disturbing and dark things happen in it,” Black Mirror series creator Charlie Brooker said.
About the inspiration behind the episode and the game, Brooker recalled his years spent as a video games journalist. “It’s a homage to ’90s PC gaming. We were channeling things like Theme Park, SimCity, Creatures and the world of the Tamagotchi and The Sims,” he said.
Regarding the viability of the future of gaming at the company, Tascan talked about how Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, along with their global network of constituents, supports new ventures.
“Ted Sarandos talks a lot about taking risks and [making] change. People are [often] asking us, ‘Can you do things differently?’ The example on Squid Games, one of the fundamentals of Netflix, when we did the game, is that they were behind the paywall, which means you need a subscription to play the games,” he said. “We came in and saw the game. We thought it was a great game, and we decided fairly quickly, like literally a few weeks before [it released], to make it free for everyone. I just sent an email to the top leadership of Netflix. I said, ‘Listen, I know that we’ve been very dogmatic about doing this. Can we do things differently to increase player density to make an event out of it?'”
Tascan got a call from Netflix Korea, which agreed with the proposal. “I feel like that just showcased the dynamism that Netflix is offering us, and the willingness to adjust very quickly,” he said. “I think that talks a lot about the way they see games. They also see initiatives and risk-taking, knowing that we will fail a few times, but this is only by doing things differently. But we have a chance to succeed.”
