The landing of Netflix in the world of video games has been, until now, much ado about nothing. platform streaming has not yet obtained good results with this bet. In fact, in August it was revealed that only 1% of its subscribers have downloaded its games for iOS and Android. However, the firm is not giving up and plans to deepen its strategy. Therefore, in the last hours announced the creation of his own studio to develop the future titles of its catalogue.
The company did not provide too deep details, although it did mention that the study will be located in Helsinki, Finland, and that it will be directed by Marko Lastikka. The aforementioned comes with an interesting resume on his back: he was general manager and executive producer of Electronic Arts, and vice president of Zynga.
“This is another step in our vision to build a world-class game studio that will bring a variety of delightful and deeply engaging original games, without ads or in-app purchases, to our hundreds of millions of members around the world.” Netflix assured.
The first studio created from scratch for Netflix Games will be fourth in the company’s overall count. Let’s not forget that the service of streaming it has already acquired three other video game developers over the course of the last year. The first was Night School Studio, and Boss Fight Entertainment and Next Games followed.
“These four studios, each with different strengths and areas of focus, will develop games that cater to the diverse tastes of our subscribers,” the platform said.
Netflix’s first video game studio is part of a long-term bet
With the announcement of its first own video game studio, Netflix wants to reflect that its strategy in the field gamer it is long-term. This means that the new team that will settle in Helsinki will not deliver its first results for a few years.
“It’s still early days and we have a lot more work to do to deliver a great gaming experience on Netflix. Building a game can take years, so we’re proud to see how we’re steadily building the foundation of our game studios in our first year, and we look forward to sharing what we produce for years to come.
Amir Rahimi, Vice President of Netflix Games Studios.
Let us remember that Netflix had already stated that its intention was to experiment and try various things during this first stage. It remains to be seen how the platform’s strategy will mature in the coming years, and if it manages to capture more attention from users.
The idea of service streaming is that video games are not just an extra element, but a crucial content that the public also chooses when subscribing. It is clear that Netflix has not succeeded so far, but history can change if the catalog of titles grows not only in quantity, but mainly in quality.