Will Netflix be able to have the best gaming service in the industry?

Netflix is aiming to have the absolute best gaming service in the industry as it looks to expand its array of playable titles in 2022, reported IGN, a media specialized in gaming and entertainment. "We have to be differentially great at it, there is no point of just being in it. We have got to please our members by having the absolute best in the category,"  said Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, during a recent earnings interview.

In August 2021, Netflix announced it was going to begin testing mobile games inside its Android app for its members in Poland. At launch, paying subscribers were able to try out two games: “Stranger Things: 1984” and “Stranger Things 3”. Then, Netflix began rolling out its gaming service in November 2021, allowing players with an active Netflix subscription to jump into a set of mobile games for no extra cost. The service initially included five games that rolled out to Android and Apple devices across 190 countries: “Stranger Things: The Game,” “Stranger Things 3: The Game,” “Card Blast,” “Teeter,” and “Shooting Hoops”. In the shorter term, Netflix plans to keep building on that early offering.

"Since launch, we released an additional five games, bringing the total to ten for 2021. It is still very early days but we are pleased with our progress. In 2022, we will expand our portfolio of games across both casual and core gaming genres as we continue to program a breadth of game types to learn what our members enjoy most,"  the company said in a shareholder letter dated January 20.

Earlier this month, Netflix added Riot Forge’s “Hextech Mayhem” to its steadily-growing catalogue of mobile games. The rhythm runner is set within the “League of Legends” universe, and marks Netflix’s first high-profile, mobile-exclusive title, which represents the first major launch for the service.

“Ideally, Netflix would like games to be downloadable via its existing video app to make the user experience more seamless and to keep users within its ecosystem. At present though, users have to exit the app and download the games individually within the respective app stores. While having games listed outside the Netflix app undermines the user experience, it does give the company another funnel of user acquisition into a Netflix subscription. However, until the games catalogue increases substantially - or there are more exclusive titles - this funnel is likely to have minimal impact on overall performance. Indeed, the company's focus will largely be on engaging existing subscribers with the games on offer,”  noted Louise Shorthouse, Senior Analyst at Ampere Analysis.

Creating interplay between its video content and its games catalogue could be key to the on-going success of Netflix Games. “In addition to exclusives, Netflix could do more to drive interest in games through its video offerings. Netflix does have a colossal subscriber base, but converting those subscribers into Netflix Gamers, even without a paywall, will be a challenge,”  Shorthouse concluded.