American video service Netflix has announced plans to release video games.
According to Variety, the platform regards the creation of new products as another way to attract and retain an audience.
“We are more than ever thrilled with the films and series offered on our platform and look forward to a long period of investment growth and expansion in all the content categories we have, but since we have been in original content for almost a decade, we believe the time is right. learn more about how our subscribers feel about gaming, ”Netflix said in a statement.
To develop a new direction, the video service has already hired an experienced game designer Mike Verdu.
He previously worked for Oculus VR and Electronic Arts and had a hand in games such as Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge and Mission Critical.
He also worked on the 2000's The Lord of the Rings series.
Netflix has already experimented with interactive projects.
In 2018, the company presented the film "Black Mirror: Brandashmyg", which invites viewers to independently determine the actions of a key character.
The platform also owns games based on the Stranger Things series.
Some of the new Netflix games will be linked to the site's original films and series.
At the same time, the video service plans to release independent projects.
The company emphasizes that users will not have to pay separately for them - the products will be available as part of the main subscription to Netflix.
Games are expected to be released first for mobile devices.
The announcement was made as part of the Netflix report for the second quarter of 2021.
Over the past three months, the video service, which last year reached a record growth in the number of subscribers, attracted 1.5 million new users.
This is a rather modest figure compared to the explosive growth rate that was observed earlier.
At the same time, the company lost 430 thousand subscribers in the main region - the USA and Canada.
As noted by Variety, such a small increase in users is due to serious competition in the streaming market, in which such large platforms as Disney Plus, HBO Max, Peacock, Discovery Plus and Paramount Plus participate.
Video games are likely to cope with their task and bring new users to Netflix, since such products are not offered by any of the company's main competitors, writes Bloomberg.
At the same time, Netflix is working on other initiatives to generate additional revenue streams, including themed products and live streaming.
In addition, the company continues to actively produce video content.
According to the report, in the first half of 2021, Netflix spent $ 8 billion on it, which is 41% more than in 2020.
Amortization of project content in 2021 will cost the company about $ 12 billion.In 2020, this figure was 12% lower.
Despite weak subscriber growth, Netflix remains the leader in the streaming market.
Its audience is over 200 million people, and its content is available in no less than 190 countries.
In second place is Amazon Prime Video.
He has 150 million subscribers.
At the end of 2019, two more platforms were launched that could compete with the streaming giants - Apple TV + and Disney +.
The audience of the latter reached 100 million people in March 2021.
In recent years, other companies have been striving to launch their own video services for the sake of additional income from their products.
One of them is the Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator.
Its site, The Rotten Tomatoes Channel, offers viewers entertaining shows with filmmakers, debates and documentaries about filmmaking.
In addition, in July it became known that the giants Comcast and ViacomCBS are discussing the possibility of cooperation in the field of international streaming. Comcast now owns the American video service Peacock and the British Sky Now. ViacomCBS has the popular Paramount + platform, which, according to the company's expectations, will be available in 45 countries already in 2022.