Netflix has been investing lots of time and vitality into gaming, however the firm sees its work on video games as a part of a broader initiative round interactivity, co-CEO Greg Peters mentioned in right this moment’s Q3 2025 earnings name.
“We’ve principally talked to this point about our work on this house as video games as a result of that’s a straightforward shorthand,” he mentioned. “However we see this initiative as extra about interactivity broadly. How does interactivity change into complementary to linear storytelling? How is it in a position to unlock entire new leisure experiences?” For instance, he talked about real-time voting, which Netflix is currently testing with Dinner Time Reside With David Chang and plans to make use of with its live Star Search revival in January. “We count on to supply different interactive options to deepen engagement with dwell occasions as we go sooner or later,” Peters mentioned.
Lately, Netflix has additionally shaken up its gaming strategy to focus partially on multiplayer social gathering video games, together with a batch that you’ll be able to play on your TV by utilizing your smartphone as a controller. “These video games are tremendous straightforward to entry,” Peters mentioned. “ It’s similar to our sequence and movies. You scroll to the video games tab, you decide no matter you need, click on it, and also you’re in. You don’t want a particular controller — that’s key to this entry.”
Within the “years forward,” Netflix expects that “creators will actually discover attention-grabbing and novel methods to unlock the entire energy that’s on this extremely superior controller that all of us occur to have in our pockets, which, in fact, is our telephones,” Peters mentioned.
The corporate can also be placing its efforts into providing video games primarily based by itself franchises, video games for youths, and extra mainstream titles like Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Version.
With its method, Netflix sees that it “not solely extends the viewers’s engagement with a narrative, nevertheless it creates a synergy that reinforces each mediums, the interactive and the non-interactive facet,” in accordance with Peters. “It drives engagement and drives retention, subsequently helps the enterprise.” Down the road, the corporate goes to “ramp our funding on this space judiciously,” however Netflix is “extraordinarily excited in regards to the progress we’ve obtained forward of us.”