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Netflix is establishing an internal games studio

October 3, 2022
2 minutes

By Sorin Anagnoste

Strategy | Business Models | Tech

#onStrategy

Excerpt from Netflix’s newsroom:

Today, I’m excited to announce that we are establishing an internal games studio in Helsinki, Finland, with Marko Lastikka as the studio director. This is another step in our vision to build a world-class games studio that will bring a variety of delightful and deeply engaging original games — with no ads and no in-app purchases — to our hundreds of millions of members around the world. – (Amir Rahimi, VP of Game Studio at Netflix)

I have some thoughts on gaming and on Netflix in particular:

    1. Worldwide core gamers are still relatively low – approx. 300 millions MAUs (200m Xbox & PS, 50m Roblox, 25m Fortnite, 50m Steam etc)
    2. I never heard anyone playing games on Netflix…wonder why?! 🙃
    3. “The Roblox effect” – when people move from “loosing time” (ie. teenagers) to having a job & family things change. Becoming random gaming players becomes the standard
    4. The unique selling proposition is “No ads. No extra fees. No in-app purchases.” – I’m not buying it (we see what happens to “we will never display ads”)
    5. Video games are totally different than video streaming. Of course, the company goes for a slice in your free time and should not be blamed. The video strategy streaming “war” with Disney seems to not work in their favour, at least for now.

Big bets can bring enormous rewards, but the opposite will bring the hell for the company (ie. layoffs, stock crash, leadership change, A-star status lost etc)

 

Netflix games

Source: Netflix

 

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