Netflix to Begin Production of Video Games w/ New Game Studio

Netflix has established itself as a big name for films and shows. However, with an upcoming opportunity, the company is looking to expand its horizons with new projects.   

Netflix will be joining the video game industry with its own internal game studio.  

The studio would be working closely with Next Games, Night School Studio, and Boss Fight Entertainment to form the core of the company’s video game branch.  

Next Games and Boss Fight Entertainment were bought in April. Night School Studio, the developer of the popular indie title Oxenfree, was acquired by Netflix last year. Next Games is responsible for Walking Dead games while Boss Fight Entertainment published the fun RPG, Dungeon Boss.  

In the past, the company has collaborated with video game publishers such as CD Projekt Red and Riot to produce Arcane and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, two hugely popular animated series.  

Both the shows have brought in new players and in huge numbers too. It is foolish to ignore how the series has affected the games’ revenue.  

The studio would develop original games for the massive fanbase Netflix currently has. The VP of Netflix’s game studios, Amir Rahimi, revealed this new department is based out of Helsinki, Finland, under the guidance of studio director Marko Lastikka.  

Rahimi also stated that this decision was pushed by a lack of monetization, ads, and in-app purchases, resulting in a decline in overall sales.  

This move was expected sooner or later ever since news of Netflix’s acquisitions became public. Since the company is starting from square one, it will be a couple of years before we see final projects in action. The first step is selecting which projects to move forward with and then the actual development.  

The action plan for how the games will be rolled out remains to be seen. We can only wait and find out whether it will affect the cost of a Netflix subscription or come as add-ons to pre-existing plans.  

About Netflix

Netflix, Inc. is an American over-the-top content platform and production company headquartered in Los Gatos, California. Netflix was founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California

The company’s primary business is a subscription-based streaming service offering online streaming from a library of films and television series, including those produced in-house. In April 2021, Netflix had 208 million subscribers, including 74 million in the United States and Canada. It is available worldwide except in mainland China (due to local restrictions), Syria, North Korea, and Crimea (due to US sanctions).