Netflix to form its first in-house games studio
Although Netflix is currently the biggest streaming service worldwide, with over 220 million paid subscribers, the company is expanding its network to create its own game studio.
The streaming service is keen to rely less on third-party developers, instead creating their own “world-class” games without adverts or in-app purchases to make the user experience as enjoyable as possible.
Whereas Netflix has bought third-party studios before, such as Next Games – The Walking Dead mobile developer, and Night School Studio, who created Oxenfree – this will be the first time that the platform will create its own from scratch.
This brand new studio will be based in Helsinki, Finland, with Marko Lastikka (formerly of EA and Zynga) taking up the role of director.
Amir Rahimi, Vice President of Game Studios said: “This is another step in our vision to build a world-class games studio that will bring a variety of delightful and deeply engaging original games — with no ads and no in-app purchases — to our hundreds of millions of members around the world.”
He continued: “It’s still early days, and we have much more work to do to deliver a great games experience on Netflix. Creating a game can take years, so I’m proud to see how we’re steadily building the foundation of our games studios in our first year, and look forward to sharing what we produce in the coming years.”
