Netflix is rapidly expanding into Cloud gaming and quite a few titles have already launched. What the streaming giant has done new is launch a new iOS app that will soon allow subscribers to play games on the TV. Called Netflix Game Controller, it allows you to use the phone as a controller after it’s paired with the TV. The app will allow one to play games that are available through Netflix’s service.
The company hasn’t announced the games that will support the app or whether the iOS app will be followed up by an Android app. The app’s description simply teases that the gamepad functionality is “coming soon to Netflix”. At the moment, the downloaded app can’t do anything. But the app’s splash screen points out that “Netflix Games on TV are in beta” and that “some devices may not be supported at this time”.
For quite a few months, Netflix has been rolling out new games to its subscribers and these can be played on their phones. There are now games like Laya’s Horizon, World of Goo Remastered and Oxenfree II: Lost Signals. So it’s a logical step to make these games work on the big screen its subscribers use to watch movies and shows.
Netflix wants to go beyond mobile gaming. In October last year, Netflix VP of gaming Mike Verdu told TechCrunch Disrupt that Netflix was “exploring a Cloud gaming offering”. He said the company would open a new gaming studio in Southern California, led by Chacko Sonny, the former executive producer on Overwatch at Blizzard Entertainment. But it’s not about competing with PlayStation or Xbox.
Night School was one of the first studios Netflix acquired for its gaming platform since the studio had a successful title in Oxenfree and the acquisition gave the vibe that Netflix is serious about its gaming future. This year, Oxenfree II appeared.
There have been failures in the Cloud gaming space, especially Google’s Stadia but Netflix believes the issues have primarily been around the business models, not the technology. Verdu has said that Stadia’s games were fun to play, but the business itself was not sustainable.
Next year, the streamer will add two of the most popular mobile titles of all time — Monument Valley and its sequel. Other titles coming to the platform include Storytellers and Paper Trail. There have been reports about an Assassin’s Creed game, along with a port of the mobile title LEGO: Legacy Heroes Unboxed.