According to The Wall Street Journal, the company has had discussions about how to make money from its games for months now, including in-app purchases, putting a price tag on more premium titles and placing ads on games that subscribers to its ad tier have access to. These methods are common (and effective) in the mobile gaming world, with consumers expected to spend $111.4 billion on mobile games in 2024
The only reason Netflix games library is decent, its are not laid with ads or in-app purchases. If that was changed it would no longer make the experience enjoyable. Hopefully, they don’t.
Enshitification intensifies
So they are going to put ads and in-app purchases inside of a paid streaming app that also has ads? Games as part of Netflix only made sense if they were part of a value-add. Having the games individually having monetization completely invalidates paying for Netflix (aside from video).
This is a dumb idea, and Netflix knows it. Sounds like an intentional plan to kill off their game segment.
Own your files, accept no compromise.
If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing.
If the ads fit in-world, like a Coke bilboard in a racing game or as is used in many games now the real product names of guns: I’m fine with that.
If it’s a fuckin’ popup or splash page or something that isn’t actually part of the game itself, all subtle like: Fuck that.
Given the mainstream popularity of video games, it makes a lot of sense to get sponsorships to place real world products in the game, the way it’s done on TV and movies. Subtle. Not all up in your face like Wayne’s World (at least that was a joke) or Death Stranding.
this was the obvious next step
why won’t someone think of the shareholders?
Alternative headline :Netflix waiting to see how Prime Video ads pans out before pulling the trigger.
I didn’t even know netflix had games, oh well. Meanwhile, the games I bought from GoG are DRM free and mine forever.
This is truly absurd.
Netflix basically bought the rights to republish versions of established mobile games as “Netflix Edition” titles with ads and in-app purchases removed as a value add to subscribers to get them into their games ecosystem. And now they want… to put ads and micro transactions back? I understand the reasoning behind it obviously-- they need a return on their investment-- but that is a clean about-face from their initial strategy
Capitalism, yet ruining another platform by trying to squeeze more money out of existing subscribers. It’s never enough.
I completely forgot about Netflix adding games. I assume it’s crap, but is it worth checking out? Has anyone actually used it?
The experience is decent. Asphalt extreme, dead cells, and many more. Premium gaming experience without ads or micro transactions. Some are also Netflix exclusive.
If you already pay for Netflix then there are a few decent games like Into the Breach. Most of it is garbage though.
I’ve only used the Asphalt Xtreme game, and it’s awesome. It’s like the old asphalt 6 days where you raced cars and didn’t need to worry about fuel or in-app micro transactions to progress.
The only selling point to Netflix gaming is that there are no in-app purchases or ads. I can’t see any scenario where adding adds/micro transactions doesn’t immediately kill Netflix gaming.
Frankly, I think this whole thing is a beat up for clicks.
This article is entirely bullshit speculation.
