Latest news with #AlainTascan
The Verge
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Netflix and Apple are backing away from great games
For the last few years, subscription gaming services like Apple Arcade and Netflix have offered mobile game developers something of a haven for high-quality, premium mobile games: a type of game that had become vanishingly rare following the rise of the microtransaction-stuffed free-to-play model. But as these services' once enviable lineup of indie games dwindles, that haven appears to be shrinking. In 2021, Netflix announced a new gaming initiative, offering users a chance to play games through the streaming service's mobile app. Apple launched a similar program with Apple Arcade just two years before that. Both services offered an interesting value proposition: Pay a monthly subscription fee to get access to a library of premium games, with some of those games available as mobile exclusives. Those games would have no ads or in-app purchases, and the money paid to studios would ostensibly be used to fund the development of more games. The games themselves covered an interesting range of genres and topics, from strategy games featuring depression and dodgeball to finding one's place by literally rearranging the space around you. Netflix funding something like Harmonium: The Musical, a game about a Deaf girl's love of music, signaled that the platform was taking its gaming initiative seriously, bringing titles from off the beaten path to the platform. But now that game appears to have been pulled from Netflix's lineup. In addition to serving as a publisher, Netflix took the additional step of outright purchasing game studios like Oxenfree developer Night School Studio and Cozy Grove studio Spry Fox to make bespoke games for the service. But late last year, Netflix closed down the studio it spun up to produce what was going to be the service's first blockbuster AAA game. Then, just this month, it announced it was going to delist some of its most notable third-party titles, including indie darlings like Hades and the Monument Valley series. Netflix is increasingly focused on games tied to its own content. In its most recent quarterly earnings report, the platform briefly extolled its continued investment in titles like Squid Game: Unleashed and Thronglets — games tied to Netflix-produced Squid Game and Black Mirror, respectively. This focus, though, seems to come at the expense of adding existing original games from independent developers. It's easy to understand this shift. While these services don't share much about hard numbers, third-party reporting suggested that the majority of Netflix users never engaged with the platform's gaming offerings. And the games they were playing, in however limited amounts, were familiar titles. It's no surprise that GTA had Netflix's biggest game launch. At GDC 2025, Netflix's president of games, Alain Tascan, spoke to The Verge about the platform refocusing its gaming efforts, saying of indie games, 'We will continue supporting some of them, but I feel that indie gamers are not really coming to Netflix to find indie games.' So far Apple has only purchased a single game studio to make content for Apple Arcade, though its retreat to more casual offerings follows a similar pattern as Netflix. Original or indie games appear less frequently in favor of those attached to big, family-friendly IP like Uno, Angry Birds, and Bluey, all three of which are featured in Apple Arcade's July update. Payouts from Apple Arcade have reportedly been shrinking while developers have complained that it's hard to get their games noticed on the platform. The free-to-play model has conditioned users that spending money for gaming content can be optional. Casual games like Monopoly Go make money through in-game advertisements or opt-in consumer spending on microtransactions, and few traditional paid games outside of Minecraft are now able to break through that mindset. Subscription services were viewed as a kind of equalizer. With investment from Apple and Netflix and elsewhere, quality games could be brought to a platform not generally associated with quality gaming experiences. Developers could fund their vision and not have to worry about monetization, while consumers could access those games with a monthly subscription and no added costs. But a few years in, the aim of these services has been adjusted, and casual games designed to keep eyeballs on an app for as long as possible, or promote the latest streaming series, have won out. Despite strong lineups of indie games, neither Netflix nor Apple could really cut through the noise, and their offerings are no longer unique. Worse still, the unique games they did have now have fewer places to go. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Ash Parrish Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Analysis Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Apple Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Netflix Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Streaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Netflix's Spirit Crossing Is A Gorgeous Cozy MMO With A Lot To Prove
Spirit Crossing is the next life sim from the Netflix-owned studio Spry Fox, makers of the beloved Animal Crossing-like Cozy Grove. Netflix announced the ambitious social MMO this week alongside some other games and a renewed commitment to investing in gaming for years to come. Spirit Crossing will be a big test of just how serious it still is about that. A trailer revealing the game shows characters fishing, dancing, and gliding around a Studio Ghibli-esque world. Alongside Animal Crossing, there are clear influences from other Nintendo games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with the cute rituals and interactions of Cozy Grove blown out into a more full-fledged online social sim. There will be building, exploration, and more. It could end up being a great game, but will it be great on mobile? Netflix purchased Spry Fox in 2022, a year after Cozy Grove blew up during the pandemic, thanks in part to it being a great Animal Crossing-inspired cozy game that wasn't exclusive to the Switch. Last year, the studio released Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit exclusively on mobile, an uneven sequel that drew lots of complaints for its smaller form factor and Netflix exclusivity. Using the touch screen to maneuver around, do odd jobs, and interact with the game's eclectic anthropomorphized cast turned out to be surprisingly cumbersome. 'The touch controls are the worst but thankfully phone controllers are super compatible and work like a charm!' one player wrote on Reddit, echoing a common refrain among the series' veteran fans. Netflix's confusing gaming strategy was recently punctuated by the closure of its AAA studio and numerous departures, including that of former head of development Mike Verdu. His replacement, former Epic Games exec Alain Tascan, told Bloomberg at GDC this week that Netflix is focused on mobile and TV and wants to cut down on the amount of potential friction for new players, like needing to own a console. The company also expects its first Smart TV games to launch later this year, he told The Verge. No microtransactions or in-game ads, but also fewer indie games. It's part of a five-year plan for Netflix to find its own Roblox- or Fortnite-style killer app for games. This is apparently supposed to be a more focused approach than the company has employed in the last few years, though the genres Netflix is doubling down on—party games, kids games, narrative games, and 'mainstream' games—suggest this is more of a 'we'll know it when we see it' type of thing. I'm skeptical that anything will be different this time around, if only because it still seems like the mandate to make great games is hemmed in by Netflix's existing business model. The subscription service is essentially a bundle, but it's trying to grow games like it's a platform. You can understand why Netflix would be keen to get games running natively on smart TVs, or streamed to them, where it doesn't have to pay Apple a 30 percent App Store fee. But smartphones as controllers can be extremely limiting. Surely Netflix will have to start making its own gaming controller at some point, right? And at that point you're half way to being a game console anyway. What's the point of keeping your games off of PlayStation 5 and Switch 2 when other companies (Microsoft) are rushing to go multiplatform? The most popular games—Fortnite, Roblox, Genshin Impact—are on (almost) everything. This is why I'm so curious to see Spirit Crossing in action. Maybe Netflix is finally onto something, or maybe it's still trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
