Netflix talked plenty about its current and future games offering in its latest earnings call, having just delivered another quarter that beat Wall Street expectations.
In short, coCEO Greg Peters said:
- Netflix games is still early in its “multiyear iterative journey”
- Squid Game Unleashed and Black Mirror: Thronglets were high points
- It is “going after” more mainstream titles like GTA
- Party games are further out, but still incoming
- Games investment relative to Netflix’s scale “is still relatively modest”
- Funding will ramp up “in a measured way” once proof points are found
Answering a question about Netflix’s progress and ambitions in games, Peters said Netflix has “learned quite a bit” and made “some decent progress” so far, but stressed that getting games right is a “multiyear iterative journey”.
He said narrative games based on Netflix IP were working well, and namechecked Squid Game Unleashed and Black Mirror: Thronglets as notable successes.
“Another category that we’re going after is mainstream established titles,” Peters continued. “This is Grand Theft Auto, which really worked for us, and you’ll see us launch more titles like that in the future.”
Peters also referenced the addition of World of Peppa Pig as sign of its progress in the kids’ game space, and also noted that “socially engaging party games” were still to come. “Think about this as either an evolution of the family board game or an evolution of the game show on TV that becomes interactive in your living room,” he explained.
More generally, he said that there are “tons of areas to improve” in its games offering. “Frankly, we can improve everything that we’re doing from user experience and discovery and getting to play, but also just in having more compelling games,” he continued.
But there was a note of caution in terms of future investment. “We want to invest enough to ensure that we are playing to win, but we also are coming knowing that we’ve got a lot to learn,” said Peters.
“We don’t want to grow our investment too much until we iteratively develop high confidence that we know how to translate that investment into member value, like the increased retention we see when members play our games.”
“So our investment by our scale is still relatively modest. It’s a small fraction of our overall content budget,” he added. “As we continue to see incremental proof points, we’ll ramp up that investment in a measured way.”
Netflix has been outlining its games strategy much more explicitly in recent months. At a press event during GDC, games president Alain Tascan said Netflix is not yet ‘the Netflix of games’ in his eyes. He later told us of Netflix’s plan to build more social, Fortnite-like experiences, and insisted that it has the “grit” to succeed in games long-term.
Netflix also released the first true Black Mirror game, Thronglets, alongside the new season of the show last week.
