TL; PhD
- The first Netflix games on the promised mobile gaming platform are being tested in Poland.
- The game must be downloaded from the Play Store. Once completed, they can only be launched/played through the Netflix app.
- It seems that the idea of a Stadia-style streaming service has not yet emerged, at least not yet.
For many years, we have been hoping to see the “Netflix of gaming”. We thought Stadia would be like this, but that is not the case. Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming is the closest, but it still has big limitations. When we discovered that Netflix itself was getting involved in the game field, we thought this was it: the Netflix of the game industry.
However, unlike the videos you watch on Netflix, you will not stream these games. Conversely, clicking on a game in the Netflix app will only take you to the Google Play store. You can download the title there as usual, and then launch it from the Netflix app. You cannot start the game as a standalone application.
This means that, in essence, “Netflix Game” is just a beautified game launcher that can lock the title in the app. This does not sound so revolutionary to us.
Admittedly, the company admits that these are “very, very early days.” By the time the service is launched, the situation may change significantly. However, so far, this does not seem to be too exciting. Nonetheless, it’s nice to know that these games are available for free when you subscribe to Netflix and will not contain any ads or in-app purchases.