It has been on the cards for a while, and the rumors regarding Netflix completely venturing into the land of the video game are just about coming true. Netflix has announced that it will be forming its very own in-house game studio because it wants to rely less on third-party developers. It makes sense if you’ve got the tools to do so, and Netflix certainly has the finances to make a go of this.
The new in-house game studio will be based in Helsinki, Finland, and the man to captain the ship is Marko Lastikka. Lastikka has already attained quite an impressive resume over the years, with the man having formerly worked at both Zynga and Electronic Arts.
This new Netflix game studio has already laid out its aims as well, with the studio wanting to create “world-class” original games that aren’t affected by advertisements, or any in-app purchases that you so often see from certain studios – although that seems strange seeing as Lastikka formerly worked at studios that are known for in-game purchases.
This might be the first time Netflix has decided to start its own studio, but the entertainment giants have bought out several existing studios in the past, which was their first move into the industry. Some of the previously purchased developers include the creator of The Walking Dead mobile game, Next Games, as well as Night School Studio, developers of the supernatural mystery/horror graphic adventure game Oxenfree. Steady on though because before you get too excited, this studio isn’t in full flow yet, and it won’t be releasing any games for quite some time.
In a press release today, the vice-president over at Game Studios, Amir Rahimi, talked about the new studio: “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.” It definitely sounds like a good idea, and with the right creative minds pulling the strings, this could be something quite promising.
It’s still early days in development, and Netflix and the team in Helsinki have their work cut out for them, but the promise of new and exciting games is enough to get anyone interested. They are making good progress though because in the first year the studio is slowly growing in stature and making excellent progress by all accounts, with Rahimi adding “we look forward to sharing what we produce in the coming years.”
As we mentioned earlier though, Netflix has already dipped its toes into the industry, and there are actually several existing titles that are now available to play on mobile via the app. Although, the concept has struggled to gather any significant pace since it was revealed.
