Netflix video games arrived in Spain at the end of 2021 after being announced a few months earlier, and since then its strategy has only grown. Subscribers to the service may still ignore this content, but Netflix got serious a year ago, and now we know that ambition is going to grow (literally).
I jump to the telly. Netflix’s initial strategy was to only launch mobile games, but there was always talk of a potential appearance of video games for our Smart TVs. That is just what the company seems to be preparing according to new data revealed by Bloombeg.
The mobile as control. A developer named Steve Moser discovered a reference to this option in the code of the Netflix application. When analyzing said code, there was mention of the possibility that their games could be played on TV, and it was also indicated that “a game on your TV needs a controller to be played. Do you want to use this mobile as a video game controller? “.
To play on TV, but without a console. Netflix’s proposal would complement the releases it has already made on Android and iOS devices. According to these data, now your catalog can also be enjoyed directly on TV using your mobile as a video game controller. It is not known if other conventional console controllers will be supported.
Value added. This will mean one more element that will try to convince users that the subscription gains in value, something important after the end of traditional shared accounts and after the progressive price increases that have been seen in recent years.
Cloud gaming? In Bloomberg they mention the potential launch of a video game service in the cloud that would allow users to enjoy video games without installing them on their devices, as Microsoft already does with xCloud. That, however, might not help much, because we are in 2023 and the game in the cloud has become entrenched.
A hypercompetitive market. The truth is that at the moment none of the video games released by Netflix have managed to curdle too much. Not even taking advantage of its series —such as the video games dedicated to Stranger Things— the initiative has managed to be very successful. It remains to be seen if Netflix finally launches video games for our Smart TVs, but what the company needs in the first place is for users to want to play their video games, something that is not happening for now.
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