Netflix to Take on Apple Arcade With Mobile Games for Subscribers

[MacRumors]

Netflix today confirmed that it is planning to expand on its TV movie offerings with a new gaming offering. During the company's second quarter earnings report (via CNET), Netflix said that gaming is "another new content category," similar to its expansion into original films, animation, and unscripted TV.

Netflix plans to focus primarily on games that are designed for mobile devices, with the games that are offered provided for free to paying subscribers. Netflix said that it wants to learn about how its members "value games."

We view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV. Games will be included in members' Netflix subscription at no additional cost similar to films and series. Initially, we'll be primarily focused on games for mobile devices. We're excited as ever about our movies and TV series offering and we expect a long runway of increasing investment and growth across all of our existing content categories, but since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games.

With the launch of a mobile gaming service, Netflix will be competing directly with Apple Arcade, Apple's $4.99 per month service that allows users to access hundreds of ad-free games on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.

Netflix's interest in games was highlighted earlier this year by The Information and confirmed last week by Bloomberg. Netflix recently hired former Electronic Arts executive Mike Verdu as president of game development to head up Netflix's gaming division.

There's no word yet on when exactly Netflix plans to begin rolling out mobile games, nor how those games will be distributed. Apple does not allow alternative app store options on the iPhone, so Netflix will have to release games one by one or use a browser-based solution.

Article Link: Netflix to Take on Apple Arcade With Mobile Games for Subscribers

 

[Naraxus]

Lol. Love the clickbait headline. Take on AppleArcade? AppleArcade is berift of AAA titles and is just ios games regurgitated

 

[One2Grift]

Netflix is the most successful streaming service by 100 country miles. But I'm bearish on NFLX. Apple looking to have studio operations in LA just another concern. Big players see the revenue from streaming. Netflix is going to come under heavier and heavier competition.
Diversifying revenue to gaming is a good first step to return to a bullish view. They've make a lot of money (revenue -- though NP isn't great) and must expand other revenue streams else lose money(revenue). That's just the harsh reality of being a big player in the S&P. It's ok to be one trick pony for a while but something always comes along to take a pic of that big pie. You'll see this continued push from Facebook. Huge company but nearly all revenue is from advertising.

 

[contacos]

Wouldn’t Apple block this? Unless Netflix makes it a separate subscription and Apple takes its share

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Lol Going after Apple... Yeah, Good luck with that.

 

[dannyyankou]

This doesn’t seem like a great business decision in my opinion, but who knows

 

[Wildkraut]

I'm looking forward to the soon alternative Netflix AppStore and competition, this will benefit iOS customers.
Antitrust cases around the world will make sure they will be able to offer their sideloaded AppStore, I'm confident.
Till then, Netflix can develop.

 

[buttongerald]

Oh goody, I can potentially subscribe to someone else for cheap mobile games that I play for 6 minutes at a time.

Don't just find a target and go after it, go beyond it. Hit a higher goal than those before you to stand out.

I have a feeling this will fizzle out.

 

[VertPin]

Lol Going after Apple... Yeah, Good luck with that.

They can be direct competitors. It’s not like Apple Arcade is taking the gaming market by storm, either. Both services will apply to the mobile gaming market, where Netflix already has a huge subscriber base. That coupled with it being bundled with their streaming service (and not another fee added)…I’d expect this so perform decently in parallel to Apple Arcade.

 

[carrrrrlos]

Alexa shall we play a game?

 

[MrMichaelJames]

Bah, mobile games. This is DOA.

 

[VertPin]

Bah, mobile games. This is DOA.

Take a look at Netflix subscriber counts. This is being bundled with the service. Surely it will have a decent player base, if not, larger than what Apple Arcade has.

 

[topdrawer]

don't do it netflix. i don't want my subscription money to go towards crappy games. make better shows instead.

 

[dgdosen]

Dogged competition? Good for gamers? Will Apple Fortnite Netflix?

 

[chinito77]

Apple Arcade really had a chance if it came out during the mobile game boom of 2015. Apple waited far too long to make the AppleTV a viable home console. After trying out Apple Arcade for 4 months, I decided to cancel it. Nothing on it make it worth the extra cost.

 

[farewelwilliams]

streaming games suck

yes i've tried every single major platform for streaming games except shadow. they all suck.

 

[Spock]

Sounds like they are getting a little desperate. Maybe because a lot more people are getting to be like myself and are one price increase away from canceling service.

 

[SFjohn]

Alexa shall we play a game?

You: Alexa shall we play a game?
Alexa: Yes I would love to play a game!
You: Alexa, tell me my social security number backwards.
Alexa: Working on it, OK it’s…

 

[sw1tcher]

Netflix is seeing slowing subscriber growth numbers




so they're taking a page out of Amazon's and the wireless carriers playbooks by offering extra features.

If their games catch on and prove successful they could use it to justify future price increases.

 

[unobtainium]

The only streaming app I use that doesn’t work with Up Next, and the only one that charges extra for 4K/Dolby. I want to cancel it so bad but have kept it because of family members.

 

[edam]

Netflix has been inching towards this for some time with Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and kids' choose-your-own-adventure-style movies. If they focus on interactive fiction of that sort (where are the former Telltale devs these days?) or have similar "light" gaming, it will be interesting to see how Apple handles this vis-a-vis xCloud/Luna/Stadia/Facebook games.

 

[sw1tcher]

Wouldn’t Apple block this? Unless Netflix makes it a separate subscription and Apple takes its share

It's free for Netflix subscribers. You cannot subscribe to Netflix through the iOS Netflix app that Apple gets $0 from

Netflix stops offering in-app subscriptions for new and returning customers on iOS

Now you’ll have to sign up through the web.

www.theverge.com

You have to subscribe through netflix.com, so Netflix can either integrate the games into the current Netflix app, or create a separate Netflix games app and subscribers sign in with their Netflix ID and password to play the games.

If Apple blocks this it'd be more evidence for governments to use to prove their case that Apple has an abusive anti-competitive monopoly with their app store.

 

[goobot]

I can’t see this being successful personally. Microsoft really is the winner in this field

 

[Hastings101]

The target audience of these cheap gaming subscriptions strikes me as the type who would rather pay $1 every couple of days for a freemium puzzle retry or something instead, and the games on there don’t generally appeal beyond that audience imo. I don’t see how they’re going to ever have a large enough subscriber base to grow and be profitable.

If companies like Netflix and Apple want to go beyond that audience they need to get beefier games comparable to a service like Game Pass, which is going to require paying/buying studios or porting old games, definitely forcing their monthly pricing to go up.

 

[Seoras]

NetFlix should buy DropBox (or merge) and then they'll be that bit closer to the same package offering as Apple has with Music/TV/Games/iCloud.