With a recent job listing by the streaming giant, it seems like Netflix are wanting to further expand into the gaming industry with its cloud gaming service. The company put out a recent job advertisement looking for a senior software engineer with “experience in game development… Unity and Unreal game engines” and more.
Recently it came to light that of the company’s 221 million subscribers worldwide, only 1.7 million had played even a single one of their gaming offerings, which works out as less than 1% of their customers.
Doubling Down In A Time Of Loss
With news that wouldn’t have pleased the Netflix shareholders, it was revealed recently that Netflix lost over one million subscribers over its last quarter, which surprisingly, was far below their predicted losses of over two million subscribers.
In a time where the world is dealing with a pandemic, costs of living crises, fuel prices rising higher than ever, unemployment, and food issues, it’s no surprise that people have prioritized other things over a ‘luxury’ like Netflix. However, this loss is when Netflix just launched season three of its exclusive Umbrella Academy series, and the fourth season of its worldwide phenomenon Stranger Things. So how much worse would it have been without new additions to these flagship series?
Gaming; Netflix’s Way Forward?
With far more competitors in the streaming market than when Netflix first launched, it’s no surprise that Netflix is feeling the need to be innovative and adapt, albeit in a surprising and not necessarily expected way.
“We are rapidly expanding new gaming offerings, so we are seeking a rendering engineer who is excited to help us lead the continued building and scaling of our efforts for our international audience. We are looking for a rendering engineer to support our cloud gaming service. In this role, you will help optimise the rendering of games so we can render multiple games on our cloud gaming appliances,”
By the job listing it’s clear that Netflix isn’t planning on pushing out countless mobile-lite games, but seem intent on following their path in high-quality and unique content on their television side, a la Stranger Things.
Is this what we want?
I myself haven’t had the pleasure of playing any of the currently available Netflix games, so maybe my opinion is a little unwarranted or even incorrect. But when signing up for Netflix, I don’t think many people’s first thought is, ‘I can’t wait to see what games they’ve got’ and is more likely to be ‘I wanna watch the latest episode of…’ or ‘I can’t wait to rewatch… from my childhood’, and the evidence is there. 99% of us haven’t played a Netflix game yet, but will their expansion change that? Instead of us discussing the latest season of Stranger Things, will we be standing around the water-cooler discussing the latest and greatest Netflix game?
Source: Eurogamer
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