So when I heard that Netflix was planning to get into gaming, I sure wasn’t expecting their efforts to amount to… mobile games.
Damn, I spoiled the whole article. Well, might as well keep on spoiling: The one hope for Netflix is that they acquired Oxenfree. Now, keep on reading, because I’ve got a rant to get to.
Netflix Releases Three New Games
That picture above… yeah, that’s Netflix’ latest three games. The names are even worse than the picture: Shooting Hoops, Teeter (Up) and Card Blast. If you feel like that’s the type of games you’ve seen on your Play Store under ‘Sh*tty’ a million times, then that’s because you probably have. Luckily for the rest of the world, only Netflix subscribers in Poland, Spain, and Italy will get these games as part of their Netflix subscription for now. Is it a punishment for those particular countries? I don’t know, but it sure seems like it. To download the games, you need to simply enter your Netflix credentials when downloading from the Games tab in your store. One Silver Lining, if there is one to be had here, is that all these glorious Netflix games are free of ads and in-app purchases.
Netflix has the money to throw $50 million at The Rock for his latest movie, yet their gaming ambitions amount to mobile games that look like even China would say “yo, that’s some bad quality.” I don’t understand, and, I also don’t want to keep ranting anymore, so let’s skip to the good bit:
Netflix Bought Oxenfree Developer
Who or what the hell is Oxenfree, you ask? Good question. The answer is: It’s a good indie game, that you can check out here:
Now the developer behind this game is Night School Studio, and they were just acquired by Netflix as the streaming giant’s first studio acquisition. Here’s Night School Studio's official and super-boring statement on cashing out:
"Netflix gives film, TV, and now game makers an unprecedented canvas to create and deliver excellent entertainment to millions of people. Our explorations in narrative gameplay and Netflix's track record of supporting diverse storytellers was such a natural pairing. It felt like both teams came to this conclusion instinctively."
Yawn. Anyway, that means that Oxenfree 2 will be a Netflix exclusive, which is good news, since literally everybody has Netflix anyway and since all of Netflix’ games are free with a Netflix subscription. In contrast to the mobile game disasters I sh*t (with an ‘a') on above, this is giving me hope that Netflix is actually looking to make games instead of app-store litter. Only time will tell, but Oxenfree 2 is a good first step.
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