Netflix Games was introduced over two years ago when the streaming giant brought free exclusive games for its subscribers as long as they are paying for Netflix membership. The games on the platform come with zero advertisements, zero extra fees, and no in-app purchases.
However, it all might be changing soon as the company is now looking to generate more revenue. A new report has surfaced stating that the company is looking to incorporate in-app purchases and advertisements in the games and has been having discussions on the subject internally.
Netflix Games Might Introduce Ads and In-App Purchases
Netflix has ramped up the games business since it first came to the scene and has released a large number of games. The company does not charge anything for the game given that the players have subscribed to the premium membership but it is looking to pivot from its current business model and has had internal discussions in recent months on how to move forward with this plan.
According to a report via The Wall Street Journal citing sources who are familiar with the discussions, Netflix has several plans to make money from Netflix Games and is also including in-app purchases, ads, and charging premiums for some exclusive games probably based on its original programs to the advertisement-supported tier-system.
If Netflix moves on with this plan and implements the above-mentioned, it would be a major pivot from the current revenue model. Netflix has provided all the games for free with no charge so far as it had said during an earnings call in April 2023 that it does not want to bring ads and in-app purchases to the games on the platform.
Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said that the company wants to prioritize players enjoying the game and developers not worrying about revenue. He had stated:
We want to have a differentiated gaming experience and part of that is giving game creators the ability to think about building games purely from the perspective of player enjoyment and not having to worry about other forms of monetization, whether it be ads or in-game payment.
Netflix currently has 86 games available on the platform and has nearly 90 new games under development with some of the games based on the Netflix original shows. The company released around 40 games in the past year including developed titles such as Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals and Netflix Stories: Love is Blind as well as third-party games such as Football Manager 24 Mobile.
The company also brought the popular GTA franchise to the platform when it released Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition last month. The company is developing games based on the popular show Squid Games where players will be competing with each other in games seen in the series. There is also a game in development at Super Evil Megacorp based on the recently released Netflix movie Rebel Moon and a game based on Money Heist was released recently.
The company brought the games across devices including television and computers as well as announced public tests for the games available for cloud-streaming. It has also acquired several IPs and development studios. and also opened its studios in Finland and Southern California. There are also reports that the company is planning to develop a PC game and it might be a reason why it wants to make more money so it could support the development and invest further in the business.
Moreover, the adoption of Netflix Games has been slow and not many players have played the games. According to the figures revealed after one year of the launch of the service, only 1% of the subscribers played the games and it has not changed much even after the launch of much more and even after spending nearly $1 billion, Netflix Games has not had much success and it plans to improve the earnings to do better with these new ideas.
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