By Nelson Schneider - 12/11/22 at 04:41 PM CT
As 2022 winds down, one media corporation just upped the ante and showed its hand for the future. Netflix, the pioneering DotCom startup that both deprecated Blockbuster via its mail-based movie rental service and also lead the way into the bold new hellscape of subscription streaming video that currently surrounds us, recently added a ‘gaming’ section to their online services. In an interview with Vox magazine, the company’s co-founder, Reed Hastings, stated that the company has “a lot of investment to do in gaming.”
Hastings’ comments follow on the heels of Netflix throwing a lot of money into the gaming space, including the creation of a new mobile game studio in Finland, bringing a number of critically acclaimed mobile games (and mobile ports) to their video streaming platform, and expressing interest in adding game streaming to their list of core features – a year after Google’s own game streaming platform went defunct.
Is anyone at Netflix actually paying attention, though?
Mobile gaming is widely reviled by traditional gamers because of the rampant monetization and social-media-fication of gaming on smartphones. It is likewise under intense scrutiny from regulators wordwide due to the negative impact it tends to have on those with mental vulnerabilities and children. Why in the world, then, would Netflix want to become a mobile game publisher?
This desire to branch out into areas where it has no experience or expertise likely comes down to the fact that Netflix isn’t what it used to be. Over the last few years, licensing agreements have expired, and far too many media companies that make movies and TV shows that formerly graced the Netflix library have decided to ‘roll their own’ streaming apps, fragmenting the streaming video landscape, sending video piracy levels surging, and drastically impacting Netflix’s bottom line. In an attempt to remain relevant in the streaming video space, Netflix started funding the production of its own, first-party movies and shows, to decidedly mixed reception. Between the disturbing levels of Woke casting, unfaithful adaptation of source material, and an almost Google-like willingness to cancel projects at the drop of a hat, the one-time streaming giant has proven itself woefully unfit for the task of content creation.
So, how do they think they’ll be able to do any better with gaming? Gaming, after all, has an audience that is significantly more hostile to Woke proselytizing than the average screen-watcher. Indeed, it seems that Netflix wants to pursue a mixed-media model, where games and video content are tied together as part of the same IP. They have cited the ability to transform ‘viewers into players’ with the release of their “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” pseudo-anime driving increased sales numbers for CD Projekt’s floundering “Cyberpunk 2077.” This isn’t a new idea, though, as media companies have used TV and movies to sell licensed toys forever, coming to a head in the 1980s, when nearly every Saturday-morning cartoon was a long-form ad for some sort of action figures, ranging from “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” to “Transformers” to “G.I. Joe” to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” to “My Little Pony.”
I, for one, am not looking forward to seeing what kind of Licensed Game disasters Netflix manages to squeeze out of its constipated rectum. This entire endeavor smacks of desperation almost on par with Atari’s (delenda est) cryptocurrency and casino endeavors. It’s a last gasp effort by a dying titan to snatch onto something – anything – to keep it afloat for a little bit longer.
