Netflix is planning to make a move on the cloud gaming market with a different approach that doesn’t aim to become a console replacement, according to Netflix VP Mike Verdu. The firm is also forming a new studio that will focus on games.
Related: Netflix adds two new games for October 2022
Google and Amazon have also expanded into the cloud gaming area with Stadia and Luna, respectively. Last month, Google announced it’s shutting down its cloud gaming service in January 2023. The shutdown would cause players to lose their games and save files, so Ubisoft, Bungie, and other companies worked on ways to transfer games from Stadia.
Verdu believes this failure was primarily due to issues in the business plan. The experienced VP explained Netflix’s business model as a completely different approach that will not repeat the mistakes of its predecessors. He talked about the company’s cloud gaming future at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 as he shared these thoughts:
“It’s a value add. We’re not asking you to subscribe as a console replacement. It’s a completely different business model. The hope is, over time, that it just becomes this very natural way to play games wherever you are. Stadia was a technical success. It was fun to play games on Stadia. It had some issues with the business model, sure.”
Netflix VP also shared the forming of a new studio in Southern California, with Overwatch veteran Chacko Sonny at the helm. Verdu commented about this move as well:
“He could have done anything, but he chose to come here. You don’t get people like that coming to your organization to build the next big thing in gaming unless there’s a sense that we’re really in it for the long haul and in it for the right reasons.”
The company has been very active lately, especially last month. Netflix struck a deal with Ubisoft that included a three-game package, added Night School Studio’s Oxenfree into the platform with a Netflix Edition, launched a new internal game studio in Helsinki, along with adding SpongeBob: Get Cooking! in collaboration with Tilting Point, exclusively into its games roster.
