As part of its most recent shift into gaming, Netflix is creating its own video game studio.

It started by sending out DVDs and then became into a production and streaming powerhouse. Netflix now appears to be placing its next significant wager on the direction of gaming.

 

As its empire in mobile gaming grows, the streaming behemoth is establishing its own internal video game studio in Helsinki, Finland, according to a Monday announcement from Netflix.

 

The announcement follows a difficult year for Netflix (NFLX), which reported losing members for the first time in more than ten years and had its stock fall more than 60% in 2022 due to a general market decline. Tom Forte, senior research analyst at D.A. Davidson, said he views the shift into gaming as a “example of Netflix (NFLX) playing offence, not only defence,” despite recent cost-cutting initiatives.

 

Forte remarked, “To Netflix’s credit, they’re a long-term thinker. They think and act long term, as evidenced by their pivots from DVDs to streaming.

 

Given how much time individuals now spend playing and streaming video games, Forte noted that Netflix was especially adept in “sensing early” that gaming was a competitive threat to their audience. This transition also gives Netflix another option to make money off of some of its more well-known franchises, including the “Stranger Things” television show.

 

According to a blog post by Netflix’s VP of Game Studios, Marko Lastikka, a seasoned executive from gaming behemoths Zynga and Electronic Arts, will lead the new game firm.

 

Rahimi said: “This is another step in our aim to develop a world-class games studio that will provide a variety of delightful and intensely engaging unique games to our hundreds of millions of users around the world — with no adverts and no in-app payments.”

 

Helsinki is “home to some of the top game talent in the world,” he continued, explaining why it was picked as the location for the new studio. Netflix purchased the Next Games studio, based in Helsinki, earlier this year. However, the new studio will be created “from scratch,” according to Rahimi.

 

With Monday’s announcement, Netflix now has four gaming studios in total. The business had already purchased Night School Studio and Boss Fight Entertainment in addition to Next Games. Rahimi from Netflix claimed that each studio has “distinct skills and focus areas” and that they will work together to create a wide range of games for Netflix subscribers.

 

A little more than a year has passed since Netflix Games went online. According to data released with CNN Business on Tuesday by market research company Apptopia, the streaming behemoth currently offers 32 games available for download that have received about 30 million downloads worldwide.

 

While not yet accessible on other consoles, Netflix games can be downloaded and played on mobile devices such as Android smartphones and tablets as well as iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Offerings include “Stranger Things: 1984,” a classic adventure game, and “Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story.”

 

According to Apptopia data, 1.63 million users played Netflix games every single day in the previous month. This amount only accounts for a minuscule portion of the 220 million paying customers of the corporation.

 

Rahimi emphasised in his announcement that “it’s still early days.”

 

A game can take years to develop, but Rahimi expressed pride in the way that in just one year, “we’ve slowly built the foundation of our gaming studios and look forward to sharing what we generate in the following years.”