Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch special might be Netflix’s most recognisable foray into gaming, though the streaming powerhouse has now confirmed in a letter to its shareholders – first spotted by Gamestop -that it plans to expand further into gaming, at no additional cost to its existing subscribers.
The letter elaborates:
“We’re also in the early stages of further expanding into games, building on our earlier efforts around interactivity (eg. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) and our Stranger Things games… We view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation, and unscripted TV. Games will be included in members’ Netflix subscription at no additional cost similar to films and series. Initially, we’ll be primarily focused on games for mobile devices.”
The company went on to add that “we’re excited as ever about our movies and TV series offering and we expect a long runway of increasing investment and growth across all of our existing content categories, but since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games”.
Netflix recently hired talent from both Electronic Arts and Zynga, though it remains to be seen what form the company’s future gaming catalogue might take. The company’s strengths lie in its original content as well as its delivery – meaning that future titles might represent interactive television series or films, similar to Bandersnatch.
The fact that the company outright stated its focus on mobile gaming adds an interesting dimension to the story, given the multitude of mobile platforms and screen sizes available on the market.
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