Two years later, Netflix is still experimenting with games

theverge.com:

It wasn’t terribly shocking when Netflix announced it would be adding games to its platform. Instead, the news was treated with a mild disinterest. “Games” on the platform at that point were the “choose your own adventure” style interactive TV shows like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal. Though Bandersnatch had a hot moment, buzz for the “game” didn’t last terribly long. Then, when actual games first started rolling out on the platform, they were little more than inconsequential time fillers with names like Shooty Hoops.

Then, Netflix acquired Night School, makers of Oxenfree and now Oxenfree II: Lost Signals. Indie hits like Into the Breach and Kentucky Route Zero started showing up alongside smaller, Netflix IP-based games like Nailed It! Baking Bash. Now, in the two years since the Great Netflix Gaming Experiment began, the platform’s gaming offerings encompass an impressive range of genres, complexity, and narrative substance, putting BAFTA winners next to games best suited for commutes and waiting rooms. And it’s long past time to consider Netflix not only a well-established streaming platform but an emerging (and serious) video game publisher.

Though Netflix won’t share how popular its games are, we can talk to the developers who make them and gain at least some insight into how gaming is going for Netflix. The Verge spoke to developers from two studios for two wildly different games to get a feel for how gaming is going for Netflix.

Night School was one of the first studios Netflix acquired for its gaming platform. Because of the studio’s success withOxenfree, the acquisition felt like the first indication that Netflix was indeed serious about its gaming venture.

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