Netflix announces to open game studio in Finland
Netflix announced on Monday the opening of an in-house game studio in Finland.
The development is the first of its kind for the company since the streaming giant entered the mobile gaming space in November 2021.
It bought Finland-based Next Games for around $72 million and bought three outdoor game studios last year.
Netflix has a cache of over 20 mobile games available for subscribers to download, and the company plans to have 50 by the end of the year.
The catalog includes “Stranger Things: 1984” and “Queen’s Gambit Chess” based on the Netflix series. The streamer’s foray into gaming is still in its infancy, but as of August, there weren’t many Netflix subscribers playing.
According to Apptopia, less than 1% of Netflix’s 220 million subscribers participated in the games daily.
Netflix didn’t immediately answer a question about its involvement in games. The streamer, which has lost subscribers in recent quarters, has touted the in-house game studio as a place for Netflix to develop games alongside its existing subsidiaries, including Night School Studio and Boss Fight Entertainment.
“We’re still in the early stages and we have a lot more work to do to deliver a great gaming experience on Netflix,” Amir Rahimi, the company’s vice president of gaming studios, said in a statement.
“Making a game can take years, so I’m proud to see how we’re steadily laying the groundwork for our game studios in our first year.”
The company said its games will contain no ads and no in-app purchases. Currently, users can see the games offered in the Netflix app but download the games themselves as separate apps.
Hi.
Heartstopper profile icons are now available! 🍂 pic.twitter.com/vPMfPitzTd
— Netflix (@netflix) September 26, 2022
