Latest news with #NightSchoolStudio
The Verge
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Mobile subscriptions are shedding unique indie games in search of a bigger audience
is a reporter who covers the business, culture, and communities of video games, with a focus on marginalized gamers and the quirky, horny culture of video game communities. 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. Desta: The Memories Between was one of the first original indie games available as a mobile exclusive on Netflix. Image: Ustwo / Netflix 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. The GTA series are some of the most-played games on Netflix. 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.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Netflix's latest season of ‘Black Mirror' comes with a mobile game
Season 7 of 'Black Mirror' premiered on Thursday, introducing a new mobile game connected to one of its episodes. The game, titled "Thronglets," from Netflix's own Night School Studio, serves as a companion to the episode called 'Plaything.' Players interact with virtual yellow pets and strive to keep them alive. If players are successful in caring for their pets, the creatures will replicate, making it increasingly challenging to keep up with their needs. The creatures can also gather resources, develop technologies, explore new areas, and unlock tools and buildings to progress more quickly. While it may initially resemble innocent games like Tamagotchi, the beings in Thronglets are decidedly more twisted. They are sentient and communicate directly with the player. For example, when the player chops down trees using an axe, a creature might realize that bones are more effective than an axe and require less time. Consequently, the player must decide whether to sacrifice some creatures for their bones to speed up the process. Netflix's gaming strategy to date has lacked focus, but the company more recently said it would direct its energy on four types of games going forward. These include narrative games tied to Netflix shows, as well as gaming titles for kids, party games, and potential mainstream hits. The latter could include licensed tie-ins to shows and originals. The new Black Mirror-themed game is currently available for Netflix subscribers on both iOS and Android devices. Although Netflix has occasionally launched games inspired by its IP, this is the first time we've seen a game that is directly tied to the narrative of a specific episode. Thronglets launches amid the company revamping its gaming strategy, having previously been scatterbrained about the titles it releases. Netflix has released a mix of indie games, popular existing titles, and games based on its IP. However, not all titles have been successful, leading to the recent cancellation of Netflix Stories, a narrative-driven game featuring shows like 'Love is Blind.' Speaking at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), vice president of games technology and portfolio development, Jeet Shroff, stated that the company is now focusing on four main areas: narrative games, multiplayer party games, games for kids, and mainstream titles. Thronglets falls into the mainstream category, making it a clever decision for the streaming giant to create a game based on one of its most popular shows. Another example of a mainstream release is Squid Game: Unleashed, which has reportedly reached 20 million downloads, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Netflix Gaming Is As Confusing As Ever
In 2021, Netflix made the unusual move of purchasing Oxenfree maker Night School Studio. 'We're inspired by their bold mission to set a new bar for storytelling in games,' then-VP of game development Mike Verdu wrote at the time. Nearly four years later, Verdu is no longer head of development and Oxenfree, a bespoke, original supernatural coming-of-age indie adventure, feels like precisely the type of game Netflix is no longer interested in making. The streaming platform best known for mega-hits like Squid Game and Stranger Things made a splash in the gaming world with high-profile but niche publishing plays for things like 2023's Oxenfree II: Lost Signals and 2024's Monument Valley 3. These were the types of games that had drawn buzz on console storefronts a decade prior and helped make the early App Store on iPhone synonymous with artful game design. But the most notable result of the dozens of targeted deals and small studio acquisitions was a widely cited figure in 2023 stating that reportedly less than 1 percent of Netflix subscribers were actually playing the 'free' games included with their paid subscriptions. For many subscribers, the carefully tucked away games seemed to be out of sight, out of mind. Or maybe they were simply a poor fit for an audience who had already signaled they were there to watch Bridgerton and not solve adventure game puzzles. Former PlayStation exec Shawn Layden once compared the strategy to sticking coffee machines in cars. Instead of games like Oxenfree finding a place to shine on the service, Netflix's most downloaded games have been the GTA Trilogy and Squid Game: Unleashed, a kind of gory reskin of Fall Guys. These were not the shiny indie objects that helped launch Netflix Games, but they appear to be its future. 'Going forward, we're focusing on offering best-in-class titles in a few key genres including immersive, narrative games based on our IP, socially engaging party games, games for kids and mainstream established titles (like Grand Theft Auto),' the company wrote in its letter to shareholders last month. Co-CEO Gregory K. Peters elaborated in a fourth-quarter earnings call: We've got fan favorites based on Netflix IP, things like Too Hot to Handle, Emily in Paris, Selling Sunset, and to our latest big release, Squid Game: Unleashed, which we really think validates our Netflix game formula, which is enabling this virtuous cycle between linear content and simultaneous game offerings. And we are just scratching the surface today in terms of what we can ultimately do in that space. But we already see how this approach not only extends the audience's engagement with the universe and a story but also creates a synergy that reinforces both mediums, the interactive and the noninteractive side. So based on all of those learnings and under the leadership of (sic) we continue to refine our strategy. And we're going to be focusing on more narrative games based on Netflix IP. These are consistent fan favorites and we've got a lot in the library to work with there. This apparent retreat into licensed slop dovetails with Netflix's recent pivot away from a number of previously announced deals for adding an assortment of acclaimed indie games to its subscription library. Klei Entertainment's Lab Rat, Don't Starve Together, and Rotwood are no longer coming to the service, What's On Netflix reported last week. The excellent Thirsty Suitors isn't getting added either, and Crashlands 2 and Placid Plastic Duck were recently ditched as well. These moves come alongside Netflix's head of second- and third-party game development, Leanne Loombe, departing the company to help lead the recently rebooted Annapurna Interactive. She was the one in charge of getting Hades ported to mobile last year. By themselves, these changes might just indicate slight tweaks to an evolving strategy, but in the context of recent layoffs and departures they give the impression of another tech giant that fumbled its way into games, got impatient with the slow-burn process of figuring it out, and then impatiently pivoted toward the lowest hanging fruit. Why woo indie darlings to your service when you can adapt the latest Netflix hit into a quick genre flip instead? Nowhere does this retreat seem more evident than in the quiet shutdown of 'Team Blue' last fall. After spending the last few years poaching industry veterans from Overwatch, Halo, and God of War to work on a big-budget console game, Game File reported in October that Netflix had disbanded the team. It recalled Google's squandered attempt at in-house blockbuster development during the Stadia years, and Meta's recent closure of The Order 1886 studio Ready at Dawn just four years after acquiring it for its ambitious VR plans. At the beginning of 2024, just a few years into its own gaming initiative, Netflix was already focused on how to make its gaming more profitable, including higher prices, adding microtransactions, and exploring in-game ads, The Wall Street Journal reported. By June, Verdu was being moved out of the top Netflix Gaming position to focus on 'the cutting edge of game innovation' instead. His official title is now VP of generative AI. Former Epic Games exec Alain Tascan took over as president of Netflix Games the following month. Putting the head of Fortnite in charge could signal that Netflix hasn't abandoned its bigger gaming ambitions, just recalibrated them. Or maybe its future is similarly an infinitely monetizable metaverse, this one of Netflix IP crossovers instead of pop stars and Marvel characters. While Netflix's gaming footprint feels as shallow as ever, that doesn't mean it's worth completely writing off. Over 300 million people have subscriptions, even as the streaming platform keeps raising its price, and at any moment they can boot up the app and start playing some of the best games around like Kentucky Route Zero, Into the Breach, Terra Nil, Dead Cells, and Death's Door. Two of 2024's GOTY contenders, Arranger and The Rise of the Golden Idol, are just waiting to be discovered by people flicking through for the latest Too Hot to Handle spin-off. There's a lot of potential there if Netflix can figure out how to make it work, or has the patience to keep trying to. For now, it seems much more interested in bringing more live events and sports to the broader Netflix streaming library then creating a home-grown, critically-acclaimed gaming hit. And how does Oxenfree III compete with the NFL? 'Netflix's Big Game Is Just Getting Started,' read a WSJ headline from December. They did not mean video games. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
