Netflix Is Officially Adding Games To The Service, Initially Focusing On Mobile

Hmmmmm wonder if Apple is gonna take down the Netflix app since they are making games available in a service rather than have them each available in the app store 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

Great news. More competition for Xbox means more and better games for us. I also really don't want Microsoft to become arrogant as Sony and Nintendo and rest on their laurels. They need to keep being aggressive, so this is just great news.

Yeah, this is sounding more and more like some very casual gamer offerings. Like Zynga but included with a steaming service instead of a social media account. Honestly, I don't see this going anywhere but who knows.

Can't see how this is rivalling gamepass if it's just mobiles games, this won't impact gamepass in anyway

Well, that's lame. I was hoping for something big, but it ended up giving me the same feeling I had when I heard about Metal Gear survival =(

Makes sense. I don’t play mobile games, 99% of them are utter garbage but there’s huge money to me made in that market. This is just Netflix trying to get in on the act.

Saying that this won't be competing with Game Pass just because it's mobile games is like saying indie games aren't competing with AAA games. Both are in the same market, they will have an effect on consumer decision regardless of the size. Game Pass is on mobile devices, Netflix is on mobile devices. I can agree that it might not have an adverse effect, but saying that it isn't competing with Game Pass at all is simply not true.

If e.g. parents find out that Netflix is adding mobile games, they're going to think: "Why am I paying for both Game Pass and Netflix for my kids when I can just pay for Netflix since the games don't require an additional cost?". A rational consumer will then opt out of Game Pass and thus Microsoft has lost one subscriber. Not to mention that it's easier in general to play mobile games than actual console games on mobile devices, and the market for mobile devices is huge. I mean, just look at Microsoft's efforts of adding touch controls to Xbox Cloud Gaming in order to appeal to mobile users. They obviously want a piece of the mobile gaming market and having another actor is absolutely going to make things more challenging for them.

Also notice the last sentence in their earnings report:

"Initially, we’ll be primarily focused on games for mobile devices."

Keyword: "initially". They have plans for expansion and this should be interpreted as more competition for Microsoft seeing as how both Game Pass and Netflix are subscription services.

Called it. I knew they would probably go the mobile route.

@LtSarge Exactly. Netflix was "initially" a DVD rental by mail, and here we are now. They're starting where they can be strong, and it'd be foolish not to keep an eye on what they're doing. Netflix has 203 million subscribers and has footprint on mobile, PC, smart TVs, and consoles. If they can back-door their way into the games industry, it could be very disruptive... especially with Xbox running away with the market.

@Spiders Agreed. But I think Microsoft anticipated this. I mean, they launched Game Pass in 2017 and started their acquisition spree in 2018. Then years later, all of these companies like Facebook, Amazon, Google and Netflix want to get in on subscription services for video games. There are some very smart and forward-thinking people working at Microsoft who figured out that this is the direction that the gaming industry is going to take in the future. So I have no doubt that they've made plans that are going to be carried out in the foreseeable future as a response to these new competitors.

But Netflix adding games is still going to affect Game Pass regardless of what Microsoft does. That's an undeniable fact.

@Spiders Also don't forget this rumour: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/07/netflix_allegedly_plotting_gaming_service_and_playstation_could_be_a_partner

Mobile games could just be the beginning. If PlayStation is partnering up with Netflix and adding PlayStation titles to their service, then that's definitely going to hit Microsoft hard. Also keep in mind that Netflix is available on Xbox systems, so Sony could potentially end up stealing costumers from Microsoft on their own home turf. Imagine Series X users unsubscribing from Game Pass and subscribing to Netflix in order to play Ghost of Tsushima on their Series X. That would be an absolutely insane future we would live in.

@LtSarge Microsoft's plan is to release one big 1st party title per quarter. That's very ambitious and only a massive publisher with 23 studios and counting can do that.

In order to compete with Xbox Game Pass, Netflix would need to either invest a lot of cash that they don't actually have OR partner up or even merge with another player. Joining Playstation would make a lot of sense in that case.

@Magabro Exactly. Netflix doesn't have the gaming expertise, while Sony doesn't have a subscription service with hundreds of millions of users. It would be incredibly risky for Sony to launch a service like Game Pass on their own, not to mention expensive. Netflix has a ready-to-go service for Sony, and Sony has the games that Netflix needs. If they teamed up, they would surely be a force to be reckoned with.

@LtSarge not to mention that Sony also develops movies and TV shows and currently doesn't own a streaming platform — and in this oversaturated market I don't think it should create yet another one.

Sony + Netflix would be a perfect match for a lot of reasons. Too bad HBO already snatched The Last of Us.

I still suspect they will try and by playstation within a year to really push this on their user base and beyond. Way too much money. They use amazons network so they have access to the infrastructure to really build this out. Right now, this is not comp gamepass.

@LtSarge In its current form this really doesn't compete with GamePass. Mobile games are not the same as console/pc games. And mobile games are already available outside of gamepass so no one currently signed up is going to drop their subscription because Netflix added a few throwaway titles in an attempt to add perceived value to their service.

Also PlayStation has a GamePass-like service in PS Now. It's inferior in every way but it exists so there's really no need to launch some new service from the ground up.

Anyway I don't see there being a Sony-Netflix team up personally.

At Netflix
Exec: we's doing games
Asst: huh?
Exec: you knows, them free games they gets on whats they calls their cellphone telephone
Asst: uh, yeeaahh
Exec: that's what we's are doing, thru the soivice
Everybody: ..huh..?

@zupertramp Mobile games are not the same as console games, true. But Game Pass and Netflix are both on mobile devices, so it doesn't matter. They're still competing on the same platform.

To counter your second point, Jim Ryan has already confirmed that Sony is looking into new initiatives for a Game Pass-like service: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2020/11/sony_on_ps5s_response_to_game_pass_there_is_news_to_come_but_not_today

Connect that with the Netflix rumour and it all starts to make sense. Sony doesn't want to launch a new service from the ground-up, so they're using Netflix for its huge audience and putting their games on there. And we all know that Sony isn't afraid of abandoning their old products/services. If a partnership with Netflix proves to be more fruitful than PS Now, then you can bet that they will abandon PS Now right away.

@LtSarge idk, obviously it's in competition with Microsoft/Xbox/gamepass in terms of where people give their attention but in real world terms they seem like two different markets to me. And I stress the "to me" part.

And I find it hard to imagine Sony, crazy as they admittedly are sometimes, would jettison a service with millions of subscribers to start a convoluted subscription gaming service with Netflix. Like, I don't want Netflix but I wouldn't mind a revamped PS Now. I think they must know that's the prevailing sentiment.

Meh. Not even close to being enough to get me to return.