Among the most successful Hollywood studios, interactive gaming has been the final boss that they’ve struggled to defeat.
Disney shut down its interactive division in 2016 after three failed attempts to crack the code. NBCUniversal shuttered its game publishing business in 2019, three years after creating it. Late media mogul Sumner Redstone had perhaps the biggest whiff: selling off his controlling stake in Midway Games in 2008 after pouring millions into the company behind the Mortal Kombat series — only to see it disappear. Only Warner Bros. has seen success, with its Harry Potter, Mortal Combat and Lego Movie titles.
Netflix thinks it can rewrite Hollywood’s troubled gaming narrative and to do it has hired Mike Verdu, a former Facebook and Electronic Arts executive, to lead a game development division it hopes to launch by year-end. Games, the thinking goes, offer subscribers another entertainment option, sitting alongside movies, television shows and documentaries. It’ll also differentiate the service from the gathering hordes of streaming rivals.
With the pace of domestic subscriber growth slowing, Netflix has begun seeking new ways to cash in on its franchises, including adding an online shop that sells branded merchandise from hit shows like Bridgerton, Stranger Things and Lupin. Gaming could represent another lucrative avenue of exploitation.
Researcher Newzoo forecasts that games will generate $175.8 billion worldwide this year across computers, video game consoles and smartphones. This form of entertainment is skyrocketing in popularity in the Asia-Pacific and growing in popularity everywhere else, making it an ideal fit for Netflix’s global entertainment ambitions. Netflix began telegraphing its move into interactive gaming earlier this year, on a call with investors.
“There's no doubt that games are going to be an important form of entertainment and an important sort of modality to deepen that fan experience,” said Greg Peters, Netflix’s chief product officer. “So we're going to keep going, and we'll continue to learn and figure it out as we go.”
Netflix received wide attention for experimenting with interactive storytelling in 2018, with the release of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. That episode of the Twilight Zone-like anthology series allows viewers to pick their own path through the story of a young programmer who begins losing his grip on reality as he works to adapt a choose-your-own-adventure children’s book into a video game.
Earlier this year, Netflix tried another approach: it teamed with Vox Media to produce Headspace Unwind Your Mind, an interactive guide to meditation, sleep and relaxation.
These early tests led to a dedicated effort to explore interactive storytelling, where Netflix could potentially mine its own trove of intellectual property — whether that’s delving into the upside-down world of Stranger Things or designing games around its popular kids animated series, CoComelon. It already has seen crossover success with The Witcher, a fantasy series adapted from the popular video game franchise (which itself was inspired by Polish novels).
Netflix isn’t saying much about this initiative, which is still in its infancy. It is unclear to what extent the streaming giant will become a platform to distribute other publishers’ games as well as its own, much as it now does for movies and television shows.
Success is anything but assured.
Gaming industry analyst Michael Pachter says Netflix is entering an already crowded marketplace, where 40,000 mobile games are produced each year, with a scant few translating well to movies or TV (and vice-versa): For every Sonic the Hedgehog success there are seemingly more notable flops like Alone in the Dark. Netflix will likely offer games on mobile devices first. If it chooses to stream games to television, it’ll need to develop some form of game controller, much as Amazon has done for its cloud gaming service, Luna, Pachter notes.
“Netflix hired a coach. They have no players,” said Pachter of the executive, whose hire was first reported by Bloomberg. “I say they have a zero probability of pulling this off, because of the technological hurdles.”
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July 16, 2021 at 04:33AM
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Hollywood Has A Troubled History With Games. Can Netflix Prove It Has More Than A ‘Zero Chance’ At Success? - Forbes
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