Netflix is diving deeper into gaming and will soon open a new game studio in Southern California, said Mike Verdu the streaming major's vice president of gaming at the TechCrunch Disrupt event a few days ago. The streaming platform has been looking to widen its portfolio as the competition gets stiff in the over-the-top (OTT) space.
This will be the fifth gaming studio by Netlif and it will be led by Chacko Sonny, former executive producer on Activision Blizzard's multiplayer shooter Overwatch. The company also has 14 games in full development at its various studios.
Netflix late last year started offering games on its mobile app and currently, it has approximately 35 mobile games that are already running on Android and iOS. According to Verdu they have 55 games in flight including games based on Spongebob Squarepants and Stranger Things.
Cloud Gaming Industry
Running a successful cloud gaming business poses some major challenges. Cloud gaming basically allows users to play games on low-powered devices like phones, smart TVs and Chromebooks so if the game has a latency issue it can be a huge turn-off. For example, you are in a fight and the game freezes for 2-seconds and the next thing you know your character is dead, you will definitely not like the feeling.
Google Stadia and Amazon's Luna have already tried their hands at the cloud-gaming market. But Google announced last month that they would be shutting down the service of its Stadia in January 2023. Even Amazon's Luna 18 months pass its official launch date hasn't exactly been doing amazing work despite the resources. So, whether or not Netflix will be able to pull it off or not only time will tell.
Nvidia and Microsoft seem to be performing well in the cloud gaming segment but since they don't release the exact number it can be difficult to say. Both these services let users have the option of playing games on a PC or on a console and when there is no TV available they also have the option to switch to the cloud.
How will cloud gaming help Netflix?
After two successive quarters of decline in number based Netflix reversed customer losses in the September quarter to bounce back to growth and Asia-Pacific region are the biggest subscription drivers. The streaming network added 1.4 million paid members in the Asia-Pacific region, taking its base to 36.2 million subscribers.
If the company is successful with its cloud-gaming plans then the company can expect to increase the user base as it will not just give their viewers something to do after they are done watching their favorite show they will also add new users to their user base. They will also be able to attract gamers to their platform which will only increase the profits and create a huge web where users can pick and choose what they want to consume.
