Despite not standing out particularly in the video game market, Netflix is slowly beginning to make its way and, far from being satisfied, the company will continue to invest large sums of capital in this entertainment segment. Apparently, during a recent meeting with investors and shareholders to report financial results, the company has confirmed that maintains up to 80 games in developmentnothing less.
According to co-CEO and streaming president Gregory K. Peters, the goal is to bring subscribers at least one title a month. To make this possible, the company has invested heavily in interactive narrative experiences, which will be “easier to build” and allow them to adapt some of their most successful series. But Peters promises that Netflix has “much more, including games of very different kinds coming in the coming quarters and years.”
One game a month
Without going into too much detail, the executive also assured that Netflix will not be limited to titles of these characteristics and promises that the company “has a lot more to offer,” including “very different types of games” that are being designed to be published over the next few years. Theodore A. Sarandos, co-CEO, president and director of the company, argues that the segment of Video games offer an extra opportunity to retain followers of original streaming productions. He argues that adaptations in practice allow users to continue interacting with their favorite characters between seasons.
In addition, games also emerge as a means to explore new characters and narratives, which may be incorporated into series or films in the future“We can do all these things now and then they can be realized in the next season or in the sequel,” he reasons. However, Peter points out that the investments are not currently yielding great financial results compared to its general activities. At the same time, he assures that this is not a problem for the moment, since the intention is to increase its presence in the sector and maintain sustained growth until the moment when the gaming division becomes something really relevant to the company’s economy.
100 launched with another 80 waiting
So far, the streaming company has released a hundred budget titles, as well as originals based on its shows like ‘Love is Blind‘ and ‘Perfect Match‘, although its app also includes a number of third-party hits in the subscription, such as ‘Grand Theft Auto’, ‘Football Manager‘ and ‘Sonic Mania‘. Although the platform is slowly gaining ground, Peters warns that the initial plan had “quite aggressive participation growth targets” with a “quite small” overall result, in terms of investment.
He also argues that now “the job is to continue increasing that commitment to the point where it has a material impact on the business.” The director does not specify whether the projects in development are being carried out by his studios or through third-party teams. In this regard, the director of Netflix’s games division, Mike Verdu, said at the beginning of the year that, in total, more than 10 developments were being handled in internal studios, in addition to 90 games planned through agreements with third parties. An aggressive policy, which for the moment is not yielding the expected returns.