Netflix's new man in charge of its gaming division says that it will release the first games made for the large screen later this year, and eventually try to reimagine living room gaming.
During a panel at the Game Developers Conference, Netflix Games president Alain Tascan, who recently replaced Mike Verdu, discussed what is next for Netflix's gaming division, according to reports by The Verge and VentureBeat.
- "We are not yet the Netflix of games, but that is where we are headed," said Alain Tascan. "It is the biggest shift in entertainment in the last 30 years."
He mentioned that Netflix currently has between 3-4 million daily gamers playing. For comparison, Steam has up to 40 million gamers online at any given time. Netflix has more than 300 million subscribers and over 700 million viewers.
Netflix games on TVs
The company has been experimenting with bringing its mobile games to TVs via streaming. This initiative is still in beta and limited to a few games in a few countries.
However, Alain Tascan said that Netflix will be launching its first games – plural – designed to be enjoyed on Smart TVs by the end of this year. To control them, users must use an app for a smartphone rather than a game controller. Currently, all games on Netflix are mobile games for iOS and Android.
He did not specify which games are being developed for TVs, but it will apparently include party games. He characterized it as a first step on a journey to reimagine what social gaming experiences can be on the TV.
- "In the living room, the TV is the largest real estate of entertainment," Tascan said. "We want to reimagine what social experiences unfold in the living room."
Consoles will have to wait
Netflix's plan is to eventually become platform agnostic, but consoles will have to wait.
It is not clear if the notoriously closed PlayStation and Xbox consoles are even open to Netflix unless it wants to publish games in the console's game store rather than, say, through the Netflix app via game streaming.
In a broader perspective, Tascan said that he believes there is currently an opening to change game distribution.
- "I said to the team, 'We have a golden ticket. What are we going to do with it'."
- Source: The Verge, VentureBeat
