Netflix’s Vice President of Gaming Mike Verdu shared two pieces of information about the streaming giant’s foray into gaming. Netflix is “seriously exploring a cloud gaming offering,” according to Verdu. In addition, the company will establish a new gaming studio in Southern California.
“It adds value.” “We’re not asking you to sign up as a console replacement,” Verdu stated on stage. “It’s an entirely different business model.” The hope is that it will become a very natural way to play games wherever you are over time.”
Google’s Stadia and Amazon’s Luna have made the same bet, attempting to sell video games to people who don’t have an expensive gaming computer or coveted console. However, these services have struggled to gain widespread user acceptance. Google recently announced that Stadia will be shut down in January.
“While Stadia’s approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a strong technological foundation,” Stadia VP and GM Phil Harrison wrote in a blog post.
Verdu believes that these products failed due to their business models rather than the technology itself.
“Stadia was a technical triumph.” “It was entertaining to play games on Stadia,” Verdu said. “There were some issues with the business model, to be sure.”
Both Stadia and Luna have dedicated controllers, but Verdu was hesitant to say whether a Netflix gaming controller is on the way.
He did, however, reveal that Netflix is expanding its game development efforts by establishing an internal studio in Southern California. This is the company’s fifth studio; just last month, Netflix opened a branch in Helsinki, Finland, led by a former Zynga GM. Others include Boss Fight Entertainment, Night School Studio, and Finland’s Next Games, all of which aim to create games for a variety of tastes.
Chacko Sonny, the former executive producer on “Overwatch,” will lead the new California studio. “Overwatch” was a huge success for Blizzard Entertainment, earning billions of dollars. Sonny left Blizzard last year, following an SEC investigation into sexual harassment and discrimination at the dominant gaming company.
“He could have done anything,” Verdu explained, “but he chose to come here.” “People like that don’t come to your organization to build the next big thing in gaming unless there’s a sense that we’re in it for the long haul and for the right reasons.”
Netflix has 14 games in development in its own studios since announcing its entry into gaming, and it currently has 35 games on the service. Verdu claims to have 55 games “in flight” at the moment. These games include both original IP like “Stranger Things” and licensed IP like “Spongebob Squarepants.” Netflix is also working on original games.
“We hope that over time, the balance will be like, 50% Netflix IP,” Verdu said.
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The company is still in the early stages of its gaming initiative, but it hasn’t ruled out expanding beyond mobile — though we understand it won’t be heading to consoles or virtual reality at this time.
The announcement of the gaming studio and cloud gaming plans coincides with the release of Netflix’s third-quarter earnings, which show the streamer exceeding expectations by adding 2.41 million subscribers, bringing the total to 223.09 million. Netflix had predicted a net gain of 1 million subscribers in the third quarter. In addition, the company reported $7.93 billion in revenue in Q3 2022, compared to $7.85 billion predicted by analysts.
