Netflix Deepens Videogame Push – Slashdot

Final yr Netflix put up a billboard on Los Angeles’s Sundown Boulevard to poke enjoyable at itself. It learn: “Wait, Netflix Has Video games?” The corporate is working laborious to clear up any confusion. It’s deepening its push into the videogame business, making the most of the studios it has acquired previously two years to create extra titles based mostly on well-liked Netflix films and TV exhibits. WSJ: Although Netflix has to this point centered on cellular video games — which enchantment to informal avid gamers and will be downloaded on a smartphone or pill — it’s taking steps to develop into higher-end video games that may be streamed from TVs or PCs. That strategy would put it up towards giants resembling Sony and Microsoft, which simply closed its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and would convey some vital technical challenges.

Over the following a number of months, Netflix subscribers will be capable to play video games on their cellular gadgets based mostly on hits resembling Korean thriller “Squid Sport” and supernatural comedy “Wednesday,” based on individuals conversant in the state of affairs. Equally, Netflix is discussing video games based mostly on “Extraction,” its Sherlock Holmes collection and its “Black Mirror” collection, the individuals stated. Whilst Netflix creates homegrown titles, it’s going to proceed to license the well-known video games, from “Bloons TD 6” to “Basic Solitaire,” that at the moment make up its catalog. It has mentioned plans to launch a recreation throughout the well-liked action-adventure collection “Grand Theft Auto” from Take-Two Interactive Software program by way of a licensing deal, a few of the individuals stated. The technique rips a web page from the streaming large’s playbook in Hollywood, the place it constructed an viewers based mostly on reruns from different studios — resembling “Mates,” “The Workplace” and “Breaking Dangerous” — whereas gearing up equipment to churn out originals like “Home of Playing cards” and “Stranger Issues.”