Netflix unveiled a host of new games as part of its Geeked Week event today, marking a real step up in the streaming service’s gaming efforts.
Having hired a whole bunch of leadership talent from across the games business over the last year, today’s Geeked Week show was all about the fruits of that team’s efforts.
Among the games showcased today were three titles from Devolver, a new platformer from Alto’s Odyssey maker Snowman and games based on Netflix shows like Shadow and Bone, Too Hot To Handle and The Queen’s Gambit.
First, those Devolver games: Cutesy platformer Poinpy, the new game from Downwell maker Ojiro Fumoto, is available now. And it looks excellent, obviously.
Reigns: Three Kingdoms is Nerial’s take on the Chinese epic The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Terra Nil is a strategic city builder where you re-wild a ruined world. It is developed by Broforce maker Free Lives.
There were four games based on Netflix shows in total. Made by Nanobit, Too Hot To Handle looks just like Love Island: The Game, in that it’s a spicy branching narrative romance game. La Casa De Papel is a stealthy heist game made by Killasoft, The Queen’s Gambit Chess looks as shiny as you’d expect from UK studio Ripstone, and Shadow and Bone: Destinies, from Chimera Entertainment, is a single-player RPG coming in 2023.
Pixel art platform adventure Lucky Luna comes from Snowman Games, maker of Alto’s Odyssey and Apple Arcade game Skate City. It’s coming later this summer.
Dreamlike action-strategy game Desta: The Memories Between was also part of the show, a new title from Ustwo Games announced yesterday.
Jam City is on development duties for Wild Things, a match-3 game where you jazz up some cute animals’ homelands. It’s coming later this month.
Elsewhere, there were ports of Thunder Lotus Games’ indie darling Spritfarer and Nodding Head Games’ Raji: An Ancient Epic, the latter of which is coming later this year.
Later in an end-of-stream montage there were glimpses of Mahjong Solitaire, Nailed It! – Baking Bash, Hello Kitty Happiness Parade, Immortality and another indie darling, Kentucky Route Zero.
It’s quite the line-up from the streaming giant; with credible games from Devolver, Nerial, Ustwo and Snowman it feels a little like Apple Arcade’s beginnings. A match-3 puzzler and city builder / strategy game are solid moves from a portfolio perspective, and it’ll be fascinating to see if those games based on Netflix shows can attract a different kind of audience.
