Starting this week, Netflix will begin rolling out its exclusive mobile games to all members globally on Android devices. This comes after the company’s early test run in Poland, which was followed up by another in Italy and Spain, was deemed as successful.
In July, while announcing their plans to enter the mobile gaming market, Netflix referred to games as “another new content category” for the company to offer its subscribers, alongside movies and TV.
Netflix has stuck to that and, over the past few weeks, it has provided members with an increasing number of free games with no ads or in-app payments. The games available on the platform are varied, including casual games and those revolving around its popular TV show, Stranger Things.
In addition to games from third-party developers, Netflix has also acquired a game studio, Night School Studio which is best known for narrative-driven titles to further expand the company’s library of games.
Now all these new games, together with the “Stranger Things” games we looked at earlier in a previous article, will now be available worldwide starting this week to all members on Android.
To access the Android games being offered, users will tap on the new Games tab in the Netflix app for Android, where the games are listed. After selecting a title, users are directed to the Google Play Store to install the games, as you would any other app. However, to sign in and play the game, a Netflix membership is required. After being downloaded, the games will be available to play at any time by tapping them within the Netflix app or on the home screen of their Android device.
Netflix clarified that even though the games were only available to Android smartphone users during the trial phase, the global launch will also see them become available to tablets running Android.
Netflix reportedly does not have any plans at the moment to monetize the games either through advertisements or in-app purchases, they see games as a means of growing and maintaining their existing user base. If you download a game but are not a Netflix member, you’ll be directed to create a Netflix account on the web. This directly increases their user base while also avoiding the app stores’ commissions on in-app purchases, which are currently a hot topic between the likes of Google, Apple and independent developers.
Netflix COO and Chief Product Officer, Gregory Peters however is still cautious and admits the company’s efforts in mobile gaming are still “incredibly early”
“Mostly what we’ve done to date is about essentially making sure that all of our systems are working as we expect. So it’s really about proving to ourselves that we can do the delivery in a way that we want,” he said “The same thing that’s made our service very powerful for recommending movies and TV shows, connecting great content creators to this audience — that’s the capability that we need to build on the game side now, as well,” he concluded.
Netflix has also outlined plans to roll out downloadable games to iOS users in the “coming months”.
