Netflix could expand its gaming service to TVs

Netflix is working on a way to bring its gaming service to TVs. The company stepped into the video game industry in Late 2021 with just a handful of games, but its portfolio has grown significantly since.

The streaming service, which has around 55 games on its service, plans to launch 40 new games on mobile devices this year. It is also partnering with several developers to bring over 70 more games to the platform. This proves its intention, the streaming service wants to expand its foothold in the gaming industry.

Netflix's games are available for Android phones and tablets, as well as on iPhones and iPads. They require the user to download and install the games on to their device. Of course, the games may only be accessed if you have an active Netflix subscription. Now, a lot of people may not prefer to play games on a small screen device such as a mobile phone, a television would offer a much better viewing experience. A large portion of Netflix subscribers are actually users who access the platform's contents on their TVs, including ones powered by Android and tvOS. So it makes sense for the company to bring the titles to big screens.

Netflix may let you use your iPhone as a controller to play games on TV

But, how would one play a game on a TV? If you have a PlayStation or an Xbox, you would use the console's gamepad. People who own neither won't have a controller to use with games. Netflix has a simple solution for this, it plans to allow users to use their iPhone as a controller for playing the games. That's according to some hidden code that was discovered by Steve Moser. It's not clear if this feature will support Android phones, but I can't think of a reason why it shouldn't.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that providing games to subscribers could be a good way for Netflix to retain customers, especially since subscription prices are more expensive than before. The company introduced an ad-supported tier a few months ago, allowing users to subscribe at a slightly lower price than the Basic plan. The move which was seen as a way to crackdown on password sharing, was criticized by many experts, who believed that the introduction of a lower-priced plan could be detrimental to Netflix's growth, however the company's strategy has worked well, it now has over 1 Million active users in the U.S. The surprising part was that most of these subscribers were new users.

The company wants to launch a more extensive cloud gaming service, that would allow users to stream games and play them on their devices without installing the games. This cloud-powered gaming service doesn't have a concrete timeframe yet, so it's unclear when it could come to fruition. Gurman contacted Netflix to elaborate on this, but says that the Los Gatos company declined to comment.

Netflix released Terra Nil, a serene city-builder on iOS and Android devices, and it has already drawn rave reviews.

Do you play Netflix games on your phone? Would you prefer playing them on a TV?

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