New Netflix Games Feature Now Available on iOS Devices

[MacRumors]

Netflix today announced the launch of Netflix Games for iOS, one week after rolling out the feature on Android devices. Netflix Games, included with a Netflix subscription, allows users to play a handful of games on their mobile devices.

Available gaming titles include "Stranger Things: 1984," "Stranger Things 3: The Game," "Shooting Hoops," "Card Blast," and "Teeter Up."

Accessing games on Netflix requires a Netflix subscription, and there are no ads, additional fees, or in-app purchases, which is how Apple's gaming service, Apple Arcade, operates. Netflix is releasing each game as an individual app on the App Store while allowing users to see the full catalog of games in the Netflix app, which is well within Apple's App Store rules for gaming subscription services.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1458132284909883393

With this method, Apple is able to individually approve each of the games that Netflix submits to the App Store. Games will appear on the Home screen of an iOS device and within the Netflix mobile app, and will require authentication with Netflix to play.

As noted by Bloomberg, the games that Netflix have introduced include an option to subscribe to Netflix using an in-app purchase. With this method, Apple receives a 30 percent cut of the money that Netflix collects from subscribers (after a year, Apple's cut drops to 15 percent).

The main Netflix app has not offered an in-app purchase subscription option for several years now to allow Netflix to avoid paying Apple's fees. With each game, Netflix asks users to sign in with an existing account or sign up for a new account, and the sign-up process uses the in-app purchase system. A standard plan is priced at $13.99 per month through the game apps, which is the same price as the plan when signing up on the web.

Netflix Games are available individually on the iOS App Store at this time, and starting tomorrow, the games will be listed in the Netflix app. As with the Android rollout, iPhone and iPad users will see a dedicated games row where they can select games to access.

Article Link: New Netflix Games Feature Now Available on iOS Devices

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Lol this isn’t going to work.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

So, these apps show up as “IAP available”. Has Netflix decided to go back to offering subscriptions inside the app?

 

[jtrenthacker]

Huh.....anyway...

 

[kostthem]

So, these apps show up as “IAP available”. Has Netflix decided to go back to offering subscriptions inside the app?

Just checked it and indeed, there are IAPs with the monthly plans (Greece).

 

[bored]

No "Squid Game"?

 

[PsykX]

Creative workaround from Netflix. Everybody's happy this way.

Netflix can go on with their service.
Apple still offers these games via the App Store.
And we, as customers, don't need to pay more for another subscription (as far as I understand).

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Just checked it and indeed, there are IAPs with the monthly plans (Greece).

This is way bigger than “Netflix releases games”.

 

[dragoon2745]

How are there only six games and two of them are related to Stranger Things?

 

[840quadra]

Been playing on Android for a bit now, none of the games are really worth the time. Hoping they get momentum on this and produce far better offerings.

 

[Graphikos]

Lol this isn’t going to work.

Why not? It's just another value add to the existing plans. I'm sure they will use it to justify raising plan fees, just like Amazon Prime, but for now it's simply included at no additional cost.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Well even Apple Arcade is way better than this

 

[flottenheimer]

Is this release worldwide now? Or only the US?

 

[antiprotest]

Very few games at this time. We need at least 50 to start.

 

[BeefCake 15]

I have 3 months Apple Arcade free, any recommendations of games to compare to what Netflix got?

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

"Shooting Hoops," "Card Blast," and "Teeter Up."

why do none of these games even sound real?
Teeter Up?
Why?

 

[metapunk2077fail]

No "Squid Game"?

Serial killer games. Tons of them.

 

[jarman92]

Would have been way more interesting if Netflix had just released the games in their app. Very curious if Apple would have dared kick Netflix out of the store.

 

[biggest father1]

So why can’t Microsoft have xcloud in the App Store again?

 

[ScholarsInk]

I wish Netflix had played hardball. This is probably the single worst Apple policy. I’m with Apple against Epic’s hissy fit, but the war on Game Pass was beyond idiotic. And it means that I never use the service even though I have powerful iDevices and a Game Pass subscription. I just can’t be bothered to deal with a browser based “solution”. No doubt that’s what the low imagination pencil pushers who designed this policy intended.

 

[ScholarsInk]

So why can’t Microsoft have xcloud in the App Store again?

Because they’re rightly not going to flood your device with hundreds of apps that just package streams of different games in the Game Pass library. Netflix can do it because they have a handful of browser tier ‘games’.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

So why can’t Microsoft have xcloud in the App Store again?

Because Microsoft doesn’t want it in the App Store. There’s really nothing preventing them from creating streaming powered packages individually for iOS in the same way that IO Interactive has provided Hitman on Switch devices via an app that only connects to the streaming back end.

 

[Porco]

why do none of these games even sound real?
Teeter Up?
Why?

Let’s guess future Netflix game names! (It’s a game within a game - so meta (no, not that Meta)).

Candy Ball
Quizz Flap
Crash Giraffe
Puzzle Munch
Jump Hype
Stranger Things 4: The Game

 

[JLL]

I wish Netflix had played hardball. This is probably the single worst Apple policy. I’m with Apple against Epic’s hissy fit, but the war on Game Pass was beyond idiotic. And it means that I never use the service even though I have powerful iDevices and a Game Pass subscription. I just can’t be bothered to deal with a browser based “solution”. No doubt that’s what the low imagination pencil pushers who designed this policy intended.

Played hardball doing what? These games are mobile games. How else would they have released them?

 

[JLL]

Would have been way more interesting if Netflix had just released the games in their app. Very curious if Apple would have dared kick Netflix out of the store.

How would that work exactly? The Netflix app had to include a gaming engine?

These games are native iOS games (one even seems to be an old one no longer available as a stand alone download in the App Store anymore), and it makes way more sense to develop native games for iOS and Android instead of developing a gaming engine + games that run on it.