Netflix will start with mobile games as it jumps into the video game market

Last week, Netflix blew some minds by saying it was (finally?) jumping into the video game market. Unfortunately, while the company made some executive changes to warrant this shift in strategy, they didn’t go into much detail at the time. Today, that’s changing a little.

As reported today by The Verge, Netflix released a notice to investors today. The letter is part of the company’s second quarter earnings report. That means it has a lot of data and numbers as one might expect. But it also shares a few details regarding the company’s plans to shift into video games in the near future.

Unsurprisingly, Netflix is going to start with mobile games. It’s not all that shocking considering the new hire Netflix brought on to jumpstart this initiative in the first place. Mike Verdu, the new Vice President of Game Development at Netflix, was previously part of EA Mobile, focused on mobile titles for Electronic Arts.

Netflix Logo

Per the investor letter:

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. 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.

While Netflix is confirming the starting focus, the other details are still missing. We don’t know, for instance, what type of games Netflix will be launching for mobile devices in the future. And we don’t know when these games will see the light of day, or how often Netflix will launch new games.

But! We do know that games won’t be an extra charge for Netflix subscribers. And that’s pretty big news all by itself. Including games with the subscription is a great move on Netflix’s part (unless it leads to a large price hike, that is).

Are you looking forward to games being part of the Netflix subscription?