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Game Studio Shutdown Suggests Gaming May Not Be Working Out for Netflix

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Netflix recently shut down its "Team Blue" gaming studio in Southern California, according to Game File. The studio included industry veterans that worked on titles like Halo, Overwatch, and God of War.

netflix-games-launch.jpg

There have been mobile gaming titles available through Netflix since 2021, but Team Blue was supposedly working on a big budget AAA gaming title that would have represented an expansion of Netflix's gaming efforts.

The decision to shutter the studio developing an original multi-platform AAA title suggests that gaming might not be going so well for Netflix. Back in 2022, a report suggested that less than one percent of Netflix subscribers were engaging in games, but Netflix has made an effort to introduce more premium titles since then.

Netflix's mobile gaming catalog includes several Grand Theft Auto titles, popular roguelike Hades, Cozy Grove, Farming Simulator, Spiritfarer, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and more. The games are included with a Netflix subscription, and no additional fees are required to play them.

Netflix games can be downloaded as standalone games on Apple devices, and are available to play after logging in with an active Netflix account.

Article Link: Game Studio Shutdown Suggests Gaming May Not Be Working Out for Netflix
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/10/22/netflix-game-studio-shutdown/
The decision to shutter the studio developing an original multi-platform AAA title suggests that gaming might not be going so well for Netflix.
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😂 Trying to extrapolate Netflix closing a gaming studio with things not going well. And maybe even Netflix abandoning gaming???

It helps to read Netflix's investor letter and listen to the analyst call from last week when they reported earnings. If you had, you'd know they will continue to invest in gaming

From Investor Letter:

We’re pleased that we’ve reaccelerated our growth and, as we head into 2025, we expect to deliver solid revenue and profit growth by both improving our core series and film offering while investing in new growth initiatives like ads and gaming.

[ . . . ]

At just under 10% of TV time today in our biggest countries, we believe there’s a huge opportunity to grow that share by investing even more in our slate and continuing to improve the variety and quality of our offering. Part of that improvement is ensuring we have a steady drumbeat of great, new TV shows, movies and games throughout the year to satisfy our members.


From analyst call Q&A:

Gregory K. Peters
Co-CEO, President & Director

Our second set of priorities are about planting seeds, these investments and new initiatives that help us expand and strengthen our entertainment offering and that we believe will be incremental levers for growth in the coming years. We've got initiatives like games. We're excited about games based on Netflix IPs. We got a Squid Game coming. We've got a Virgin River Christmas. We've got The Ultimatum. We've got games based on storied game classics like Monument Valley 3 that's coming out.

[ . . . ]

I think it's also worth noting that we've got a lot on our plate right now. We've got a lot of hard work building new capabilities. We're building ads. We're building games. We're building live. Those all expand that offering. They deliver more value to members. So we want to focus on building those capabilities.
 
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Their game offerings aren’t very good, or they are just old games that we’ve played many years ago but are now locked behind a Netflix account.
 
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I mean, from what this is about, it's certainly one hell of a suggestion....one might call it a 'rumor,' even.
 
Been a NetFlix subscriber for some years now and it was only this month I realised I could download games on my iPhone/iPad and play them for free as a NetFlix subscriber.
Downloaded and tried GTA last night. First time ever for me. (I'm old...)
So was me getting into this as a result of some last minute marketing to existing users just to push up the numbers?
Shame, seemed like a cool extra for my subscription.
 
Gaming takes investment, creativity, and love for video games. Even Apple has had difficulty making it in gaming. Look at Microsoft buying game studios, and then laying people off. Hiring people, who know physically how to make a game, without having a passion for gaming, doesn’t work.
 
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Netflix is terrible at advertising. Their shows that haven't already gone "viral." The fact there's some actually good games you can download and play for "free." So netflix being netflix. Is anyone really shocked they cancelled something else?
 
Short-term profit seeking with wild schemes is never going to pan out. Anyone with a brain could have told them this was going to flop.
 
Gaming is one of most difficult areas of business. It is better stay out of it if you don't know what you are doing.
 
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