How Netflix's external dev partnerships are pivotal for its gaming gambit

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The Queen's Gambit Chess launches on the Netflix mobile app today, following in the footsteps of the streaming giant's own IP like Stranger Things and Too Hot to Handle, which already have their own games published on the platform. A key difference, however, is this title is the result of a partnership that had come together before Netflix had even officially announced its gaming ambitions back in 2021.

The game is developed by Liverpool-based Rockwater Studios, the internal development team of publisher Ripstone, which has already carved a niche for itself with the release of premium quality chess titles like Pure Chess and Chess Ultra. It was perhaps no surprise then that its staff were among the 62 million viewers hooked by The Queen's Gambit when the miniseries released on Netflix back in October 2020.

With the show causing a surge in sales for both physical chess sets and digital games, Ripstone spied an opportunity to pitch a game to Netflix that would be, as Ripstone's head of marketing Jamie Brayshaw puts it, "our love letter to the show, as the show is a love letter to chess."

Unbeknownst to him, a pitching call set up with the Netflix licensing team a month after the show's launch would result in Ripstone becoming the first external development partner privy to the platform's strategy to move into games in a similar model to Apple Arcade (no ads, no in-app purchases), except that it's included as part of a Netflix subscriptions. In turn, Ripstone also established the kind of developer partnerships Netflix is looking for.

"From my perspective, I much prefer it when developers come to us and they have an idea they're passionate