Netflix’s Foray Into Video Game Streaming Is Getting Slightly More Interesting

As a writer of opinion pieces, sometimes you go hard in the paint and the result isn’t precisely what you expected. Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote about Netflix’s announced decision to dip its toe into the video game market. At that point, word had gotten out about it all, though that word can be summed up as vague and without any real specifics as to what any of it meant. As a result, because this was also the era of several other players starting to talk about video game streaming, a la Google’s Stadia product, there had been a bunch of speculation that Netflix was going to get into the game-streaming business as well. Instead, the whole thing turned out to be Netflix developing a few mobile device games that mostly dovetailed with other Netflix properties, such as Stranger Things. It was a big yawn and I wasn’t exactly kind to Netflix about the plan.

But now things are getting at least mildly more interesting. Recently Netflix announced that it is going to start getting into the game-streaming business, albeit in a very limited beta to see how this all is going to work.

In a blog post today, Mike Verdu, vice president for games at Netflix, states that the streaming content company is rolling out “a limited beta test to a small number of members in Canada and the UK on select TVs starting today, and on PCs and Macs through Netflix.com on supported browsers in the next few weeks.”

The first two games available on bigger-than-mobile screens are the visual novel-esque adventure game Oxenfree 2, from Netflix-owned Night School Studio, and Molehew’s Mining Adventure, described as a “gem-mining arcade game.”

Those two games and future titles can be streamed. Those early testers playing on TV can use Netflix’s app-based controller, while Netflix says that members “on PCs and Macs can play on Netflix.com with a keyboard and mouse.” There’s no mention of controller support, Linux, or other systems that have browsers. Given the mess that Linux users encounter with web-based DRM, and Netflix’s peculiar device support, it’s not a likely bet, at least for now.

On the one hand, yes, this is still a very limited release and we have no idea how well it will all perform in the beta test. Two games is not a catalogue and none of this remotely looks like the rollout of Google Stadia. But that might be the point. Perhaps this is Netflix not trying to immediately take on a larger catalogue filled with AAA titles because it watched Google fail so miserably at it. Instead, this dipping its toe in the water might be designed instead to see if Netflix can make this work for a more expanded catalogue. If so, that sounds prudent to me.

And perhaps Netflix will simply be more choosey when it comes to which titles it expands its streaming service to.

The two streaming games announced, and their mobile games so far, lean heavily toward puzzle, casual, party, adventure, and light action (and Kentucky Route Zero). This is not a value judgment, as there are some well-regarded titles in the mix that may make their way to streaming, including Moonlighter, TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, Laya’s Horizon, World of Goo Remastered, Shovel Knight, Immortality, Desta: The Memories Between, Reigns, and Into the Breach.

Netflix seems to have big ambitions for games, recently investing heavily in its studios and third-party titles. Its latest ploy for even more access could mean the entry of a new, quirky competitor for our already highly sought-after screen time.

As we stated, we have no idea if this will work. But it’s certainly starting to get more interesting than its initial foray would have led us to believe.