If there is one sure-fire way to make money in the games industry, it is to make a Grand Theft Auto game. GTA V, for example, has sold more than 185 million units since its release in 2013 and still tops sales charts regularly even to this day. Netflix seems to have realized this and wants in on the action.
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According to a report from Wall Street Journal, Netflix has “discussed plans” to release a Grand Theft Auto game on its Netflix Games service by signing a licensing deal with publisher Take-Two Interactive. Not much is known about the game, such as what genre or style it will be in and who will develop it (maybe Rockstar?), but we would wager it will be a mobile game of some sort.
Netflix Games has been trying to establish its presence in the games industry for a few years and has acquired several developers to create original IPs for the platform. According to an analyst speaking to WSJ, Netflix has spent about $1 billion on games so far.
However, whether or not they are successful is anyone’s guess. Netflix doesn’t exactly release statistics of any kind for their games, and since they are packaged as an added bonus with a Netflix subscription service, it’s hard to judge what the conversion rates are. But judging from the last known figure, it doesn’t seem like it’s doing much – as of September 20, Netflix games have been downloaded 70.5 million times. While the number might seem impressive, it’s still a far cry from the numbers other mobile-oriented games like Honkai, Fortnite, and PUBG Mobile pull monthly.
One reason for the lack of interest could be that most of the games on Netflix are available elsewhere or are only available to play on mobile. However, the report from WSJ suggests that Netflix plans to expand its library of games to be streamed from the TV or the PC in the future.
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Mufaddal Fakhruddin
Mufaddal Fakhruddin has been writing about games and technology for the past 15 years. He has lost count as to how many reviews he has written over the years, but he is sure headphone reviews make up at least 70% of that.
