Will anything ever be able to properly take on Game Pass? At the moment, Xbox's service is dominating the gaming conversion, especially following the Activision Blizzard purchase announced earlier this week. Netflix seems to think it can compete though, in time.
During a recent earnings call, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings discussed Netflix's gaming plans. In short, the company doesn't want to get further into gaming for the sake of it, they want to be the best.
"We're definitely 'crawl, walk, run' and, like, 'Let's nail the thing, and not just be in it for the sake of being in it or for a press release'. But we've got to please our members by having the absolute best in the category."
Netflix began to expand into gaming last year. The focus was, and still is mobile, but eventually you'd expect them to jump into more traditional console and PC gaming. Quite how that'd work, given Netflix's broad audience which may or may not own powerful hardware, remains to be seen.
It'd probably be all Cloud based, much like Xbox Cloud Gaming. However, game streaming tech is still a bit wonky, so that could explain why Netflix is in no hurry to go all in on gaming.
Do you think Netflix will truly take on Xbox Game Pass? Let us know below.
Comments 22
Well as Netflix is in trouble today, after it's admittance to the market it hasn't gained anywhere near the number of new subscribers it told them they would.
I'd much rather stick to Game Pass from a company that knows about gaming and has helped create the games market over the years.
Im not sure that Netflix will be best in class. Some would argue others beat them in streaming services.
I mean if they are entering the market they’re not going to aim to be third best. I don’t see it though unless they can come up with some better streaming tech.
they should buy Take Two
If netflix continues to make these kind of waves, in the gaming community, ms may buy them, too!
Good Morning Netflix Microsoft Say Hello
Would Netflix need to rename their games division? Netgamez? It makes more sense considering the flix part refers to movies. Either way the big 3 are enough for my gaming needs. Remember how well Stadia went?
Microsoft is really positioning themselves nicely for this battle, amazed how far they have come since 2013.
No shade, but I hope Netflix’s gaming aspirations are eventually crushed.
The problem with netflix ( film wise ) is that when netflix were king they waited too long to start producing their own stuff , Thier library consisted of everyone else's material and when things get taken away ( like the marvel contract for series's like daredevil ) it hurt em and now Disney have most of everything and are creating a ton load of new stuff and netflix are losing against em
@Korgon Stadia still exists. Honestly, Stadia would’ve been more successful had people not been so distrustful of Google as a new competition in the gaming space. For people that aren’t disgusted with cloud gaming, Stadia is a fantastic and cheap little device that actually works remarkably well. Stadia faltered in its lack of exclusive content and its pricing model and even more so in its total inability to convince the dedicated gamer base to trust their product. Simply put, people wanted Stadia to fail and so it did. Same with Luna. I don’t mind cloud gaming though, and I’m glad Xbox got it right with Gamepass and xCloud.
As far as Netflix goes, I’m not really a fan of Netflix as a streaming service in the first place and I don’t find their original TV/film content to be that interesting (there’s a few good shows and such, but I don’t even browse Netflix unless a show I like has a new season), so I’m not excited for them to take a shot at gaming. Regardless, I will try it and see what it is.
They will compete with Stadia, Apple Arcade or Google Play if they're lucky.
Netflix has just posted their worst results in a long time for TV subs. I don’t think they will be worrying any of the gaming giants for a very long time of at all. Maybe they will pick up some of the casual gaming audience - and that is not a dig as I believe and always will be believe that gaming is gaming no matter where it is played - but I just cant see Amazon, Google or NetFlix ever being part of the full gaming scene. Then again who thought Sony would take on the big 2 back in the day…..
@somnambulance
Sure I would have given Google more of a chance had they entered the market with a plan. It just seemed like they had no clue what they were doing from the get go. Streaming only was a terrible idea and yeah the fact that they launched with absolutely no software of note pretty much gave them no chance. Streaming works best as an added feature like how Xbox does it.
As for Netflix I guess I just don't have faith they understand the game market based off their last few attempts at putting out games based on their shows. I tried the Cobra Kai game that came out with a friend and was absolutely appalled at what we played. Just a terrible game which is a shame because Cobra Kai should have been pretty easy to make a somewhat enjoyable game off of.
But hey I'll still listen to their pitch if they try to get into it more seriously. I'll just keep my expectations in check.
@Korgon Google stadia being streaming only wasn't the reason it failed, I've played stadia for about 20 hours (far cry 5) and it was in 1080p no lag at all and my internet is the lowest possible on virgin media, so in terms of game streaming stability and performance it's the best I've tried so far, gamepass definitely has more games and better value though which is more important to most people.
But the reason it failed was because of its weak games library
Actually thinking about stadia, late last year Google added elder scrolls online and the new doom to stadia, but I thought Microsoft was against these big tech rivals
@UltimateOtaku91 @Korgon Stadia’s failure was people wanting it to fail, and, yeah, it seemed like they went in without any big plan. They promised they’d have exclusives, but cancelled them all pretty early in because it wasn’t taking off like Google expected. It’s a shame. I wonder what would’ve happened if they supported it another year or two more strongly. I don’t really like Google, but there was some genuine potential in Stadia that was totally missed. I mean, Xbox had growing pains, but Microsoft stuck through it. I’m sort of expecting Netflix to make another Stadia. Gamers want it to fail and Netflix has not shown they want to win gamers over just yet. I wish they’d show something instead of making hubris-laden remarks.
"Microsoft is trying to kill Sony!"
How about they focus on bringing back their stock from that 20% dip overnight?
Good luck Netflix at the prices your are now charging your going to be loosing subscribers not gaining them
@Savage_Joe 13%. It rebounded 6%. So only a 10bn drop, it's only money. Once they announce HFW has NFTs they'll be up 14% though so it's all good
@SplooshDmg Desirous intent. Bobby's showing them the ropes. And other things.
Quake 5 is okay and all, but right now my top hope is StarCraft on console. They're bringing aoe4 eventually, so the tools would work for sc.
Starbucks makes artisan coffee. It's worth $7, I just buy one, savor all of it over months, then sell the cup. Panera just floods the market with cheap subscription coffee. They don't care about latte art and memorable coffee experiences, they just want money and they can afford to lose money for years giving everyone value at a loss! Starbucks just needs to not react and keep making quality coffee that takes 6 years and half their annual sales to make so 15% of their customers buy them. They'll be fine. They should also buy ToRoast so they can have all the Dark Roasts coffees. They'll stay #1 that way! Panera still has no coffee.
Lol that was a shock seeing you here again! It was freaky seeing the entire set of conversations vanish. I figured you finally lost it, went full nintendrone, bought a wiiu and got banned for trolling the xbots or something
And of course, by "best" they mean sales and subscriptions. Netflix will learn, either the hard way or by paying attention, that if they want to compete that they'll have to put quality first. Something that will never come to pass if they chase they keep chasing Apple Arcade. I doubt they even are looking at Game Pass as a competitor.
@Martsmall The main problem with Netflix right now for me is that there is too many different things on it and mostly it is filler except that odd good movie or series. There is also this problem that most of the time their movies are only good as Netflix films and not actually good movies. They are good for watching on Netflix as part of a subscription but that's it. So a lot of filler content.
Also some of their bigger and more promising moves like Witcher while generally good are still kind of mid. In contrast to Disney+ which already killed it Mandalorian and Loki for me.
@SplooshDmg MS may have a Monopoly, but just because they have Coffee '96, and all of Starbucks coffees and all of Paneras coffee, and all of Peet's coffee, they just don't have any coffee that can compare to High quality masterpieces like Dunkin. Dunkin should just keep doing what they're doing. MS will stop making coffee in a few years anyway, they only care about selling creamer anyway. Dunkin probably should buy Klatch or go big with Counter Culture. Eventually people will realize that $20 for high quality coffee is a bargain compared to ms low quality "free" coffee. Phil's lying as always.
Lol I hear you about it taking away actual game time. Tough that's extreme. And freaky when while histories disappear down the memory hole
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