Netflix Establishes New Internal Games Studio
Netflix announced today that it is establishing its very own games studio in Helsinki, Finland. The company also announced that former Zynga and EA exec Marko Lastikka will be studio director for the new internal games studio. While not the first video game developer that Netflix owns, this does mark the first time that the company will have built one from scratch rather than acquiring one.
"This is another step in our vision to build a world-class games studio that will bring a variety of delightful and deeply engaging original games – with no ads and no in-app purchases – to our hundreds of millions of members around the world," shared Amir Rahimi, VP of Game Studios at Netflix, as part of the announcement. "Why Helsinki? It is home to some of the best game talent in the world. This will be a games studio that we build from scratch, and our second games studio in Helsinki alongside Next Games, which became part of Netflix earlier this year. Along with Night School Studio and Boss Fight Entertainment, these four studios, each with different strengths and focus areas, will develop games that will suit the diverse tastes of our members."
As Rahimi notes in the announcement, creating a video game can take years, so it's unclear when we might first see details on what this new internal Netflix games studio is working on. Or, for that matter, when it might actually release. As for known first-party Netflix titles, Night School Studio is set to release Oxenfree II: Lost Signals in 2023.
As noted above, Netflix is making its own internal games studio in Helsinki, Finland. Marko Lastikka is the studio director for it. Other video game companies owned by Netflix include Next Games, Night School Studio, and Boss Fighter Entertainment. More generally, games on Netflix are available globally on both Android and iOS devices with players being able to find the various games in their respective application storefronts to download in addition to the Netflix app itself. You can check out all of our previous coverage of Netflix right here.
What do you think about Netflix making its own internal games studio? Are you excited to see what sorts of original video games that the streaming service ultimately comes out with? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things Netflix and games!