According to the company’s investor letter published on Tuesday, Netflix now has 55 games in development, including extra titles based on Netflix franchises (PDF). The promise to even more games shows Netflix is happy with the launch thus far, even though the firm just really went serious about gaming with the initial release of its Android and iOS selection late last year.
Even if you might be perplexed by that last sentence, it seems like Netflix is increasing the number of games it offers. According to the firm, its first year of gaming was about getting a feel for the industry and seeing how its audience would respond to a new project. There are already 35 games available through the site as part of its subscription plans, and it is reportedly noticing “encouraging evidence” that gaming encourages subscribers to keep their subscriptions longer. With 55 games now under development, some of which are based on Netflix original IP, the company is expanding its gaming offerings as a result. It will be interesting to see how the company invests over the coming years given that it says it will.
Additionally, Netflix expanded into the region by opening a brand-new development studio in Southern California. Chako Sonny, a former vice president of Blizzard and head of Overwatch, will run the new company. Netflix’s VP of gaming, Mike Verdu, said: “He could just have done anything, but he wanted to come here. “You don’t have folks like that coming to your organization to build the next big thing in gaming unless there is a sense that we’re genuinely in it for the long haul and in it for the right reasons,” the speaker said.
