Netflix launches a game controller app for playing games on your TV

techcrunch.com:

After last fall signaling its intentions to expand into cloud gaming, Netflix today launched a new app that will soon allow subscribers to play games on their TV. The app, dubbed “Netflix Game Controller,” lets you use your phone as a controller after pairing it with your TV in order to play the games available through Netflix’s service.

Though the game has appeared in the App Store, there’s no news yet on which of Netflix’s games will be making their way to the big screen or when. Instead, the app’s description simply teases: “Coming soon to Netflix.”

Reached for comment, Netflix declined to share additional details about its plans or timeline.

Image Credits: Netflix’s new app on the App Store

However, Netflix has already gone on the record about its plans to expand beyond mobile gaming.

In October 2022, Netflix VP of Gaming Mike Verdu told the audience at our TechCrunch Disrupt event that Netflix was “exploring a cloud gaming offering.” He also noted the company would open a new gaming studio in Southern California, led by Chacko Sonny, the former executive producer on “Overwatch” at Blizzard Entertainment.

The exec clarified he didn’t see Netflix competing in the same space as PlayStation or Xbox, however.

“It’s a value add. We’re not asking you to subscribe as a console replacement,” Verdu said at the time. “It’s a completely different business model. The hope is over time that it just becomes this very natural way to play games wherever you are.”

While other cloud gaming services have failed, like Google’s Stadia, Netflix believes the issues were around the business models, not the technology. Verdu remarked that Stadia’s games were fun to play, but the business itself was not sustainable.

Netflix, on the other hand, bundles