Netflix, oh, netflix, from rental CD’s in crinkly sleeves posted two, three times a week, family time on Friday nights and PG-13’s seen as tweens from home tv’s post-movie theatre release.
Netflix, oh, netflix, in 2013, streaming past bedtime through season three, the invention of ‘binging’, from phones and PC’s, sharing favourite shows with others, uniting lovers of How I Met Your Mother, and with Friends never another lonely eve.
Netflix, oh, netflix, how you’ve grown, producing your own, transducing themes to LCD screens, rebooting old movies into new things, introducing international blurring barriers with subtitles.
Netflix, oh, netflix, the favoured streaming platform, from childhood into teens to early twenties, Netflix and chill memes, limited series, interactive adventures, you’ve been so near and dear in the age of computer compadres, but, but what’s this, I fear?
Netflix, oh, netflix, you’re just like the others, betraying our trust to just watch under covers, roll the dice to monopolize attention spans by adding some other thing that nobody knew was coming --- Netflix Games.
Huh???
Introducing: Netflix Games.
While the streaming mogul has grown exponentially since the turn of the century, now flaunting over 250 million subscribers (and that’s not counting the people using their ex-boyfriend’s ex-roomate’s account… you know who you are), it seems being at the bow of the ship of today’s most popular streaming services is not enough. No, being one thing is never enough in today’s world, especially when it comes to digital entertainment. It seems the platform is following suit with major social media companies like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook in today’s monopolictic trend of being the all-in-one offer.
Utkarsh Yadav, 22, is a lecturer at London Metropolitan University specialising in video game design and programming. “In an actual AAA game they have 4k textures. Triple-a games are professional games that are made by teams of hundred developers. But the ones on Webgl, which is a platform for web games, don't. They’re 720p, maybe 1080 pixels.” So, he explained, perhaps the games are not inherently bad, but dealing with a lot of restrictions.
Daniel Broj is a lover of video games, keen towards narrative games like Assassin’s Creed and Skyrim. As a filmmaker, he has a keen eye for beautiful, in-depth games. “I like when it’s really cinematic and there’s a lot of cut scenes and ‘stuff’ prepared. If it immerses you in the story, that’s usually what I go for,” says Broj, 24.
“One day I was on my ipad, on Netflix for the first time in a while, and saw that there were games –– and I found the idea so weird. Because if you want to watch movies, you go on netflix. If you want to play games, you go into your PC or games launcher, playstation, homescreen, whatever. But I’m just not in the mood to do one thing when I want to do the other.”
ERROR asked our followers if they were aware of this new venture for Netflix, and whether they would engage with it.
Would you play a game on netflix?
"So to me it’s just really confusing, I also don’t find the games they show there interesting at all, it just feels like the extension of an app store.” Netflix also has older PS2 titles like GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas, but they are only available on the android and IOS netflix app.
Broj continues, “I don’t particularly like the approach. I see why they do it, companies like Meta want to create one comprehensive platform, they buy off other platforms like Instagram and Whatsapp, and they try to combine it all into one huge thing. I don’t think it’s going to work.”
Would Netflix be better off diving into interactive shows and staying in its lane so to speak, or is the one-size fits all business model the ‘smartest’ move?