Netflix has over 80 games currently in development and plans to launch one each month
$Winking Studios (WKS.SG)$ Netflix currently has over 80 games in development, with plans to release a game a month to its subscribers from this month onwards.
In its latest earnings call, Netflix's co-CEO, president and director Gregory K Peters discussed the company's plans for gaming and how it will achieve growth.
Where the company is moving quickest is with interactive narrative games, which Peters describes as "easier to build". These are placed in the Netflix Stories narrative hub and it's here the company will be launching a new game each month based on popular series like Emily in Paris and Selling Sunset.
Peters promised Netflix has "lots more, including very different types of games yet to come in the quarters and years ahead".
Netflix's fellow co-CEO, president and director Theodore A Sarandos also contributed to the gaming discussion. "I think our opportunity here to serve super fandom with games is really fun and remarkable," he said. "I think the idea of being able to take a show and give the superfan a place to be in between seasons and even beyond that, to be able to use the game platform to introduce new characters and new storylines or new plot twist events, now you could do those kind of things and then they can then materialise in the next season or in the sequel to the film."
So far, Netflix has launched over one hundred games, though many of these are small in scope.
The Netflix mobile app includes a number of third-party games as part of the subscription, like Grand Theft Auto, Football Manager, and Sonic Mania, as well as original Interactive Stories based on Netflix shows like Love is Blind and Perfect Match.
Peters noted that, while Netflix had set itself "pretty aggressive engagement growth targets", which it's met, the impact on the overall business is "still quite small" - as is investment.
Now, then, "the job is to continue to grow that engagement to the place where it has a material impact on the business," he said.
At the end of last year, Netflix head of gaming Mike Verdu revealed the company had over 10 games in development at in-house studios, plus 90 games planned through deals with external teams.
It's unclear what the exact split is between in-house and third-party games for the 80 now in development, or what's changed since last year.
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