Netflix is probably the most common streaming service around the globe. Partly because it's the oldest, and partly because it's more widely available. I'm sure you have also used it at least once in your lifetime. But Netflix is declining. And fast. Many of you might've already considered unsubscribing from Netflix. I have considered it too. But haven't done it yet. Maybe soon enough. Now, why would Netflix decline in the first place? I talked about it in an old blog.
That the quality of the content is declining and other streaming services are catching up and actually the users are getting split between them whereas before, Netflix had most of them. Now assume you're the owner or a top executive at Netflix. What would you do to save your company? Regardless of what you'd do, Netflix actually something which is well, how to name it, a "what?" type of work. Netflix has introduced games in their app.
Yes, you read it right. Netflix have added a new games tab in the bottom menu of your mobile app. If you haven't seen it already, which is extremely likely, head over now and see it for yourself. I'm sure you have a lot of questions as to why all this is happening. Why on earth would a streaming service have a games section. Or even if it has one, why was there no fancy announcement? Here's the fun part. Netflix deliberately wanted to keep things quiet. Because they didn't want it to look like a multimillion dollar failure if it failed.
Their claim is they are collecting data as to whether users will actually play them and in turn stay more engaged with Netflix. These games are basically from 20 years ago. Those old Gameboy advance or usual 8bit coded graphics. Now I personally don't think you or I would play them. Like ever. If it was like AAA titles then maybe the audience would give it a thought. But I don't see any good reason why a normal person would log on to a streaming app to play some games which look like they were made 20 years ago. Now these games aren't entirely random. They are inspired by famous Netflix shows. So Netflix is also expecting that by playing these games they can market their shows to the audience who might watch it on Netflix later on. But this doesn't make any sense to me. And the numbers do agree with me. These games are available in Netflix since late 2021 in different regions and till now, only about 1% people actually play these games. 1% is almost nobody. Which is very understandable as to why would anyone do that anyway. But there are new news too. In LinkedIn there are job listings from Netflix which describe they are hiring people for a cloud gaming project. Which might just make a little more sense. If they can enter cloud gaming then they can branch out and increase their brand value elsewhere, as in streaming they are falling behind.
What do you make of all this? To me it makes absolutely no sense. Cloud gaming may make a little more sense but then again Netflix can always stick to the field where they have proven themselves before and make better contents for their service which will automatically make more people interested in subscribing.
