Netflix: Getting into video games
Netflix might have started exposing its customers to the world of video games in 2017, when Netflix Interactive Specials were launched. Remember the famous Black Mirror: Bandersnatch? Even a non-gamer-black-mirror-fan (like me) was able to experience making choices for characters and shape the story based on those choices.
Cutback to last week, Netflix tweeted: “Let’s talk about Netflix games. Starting today, users in Poland can try out two mobile games on Android: Stranger Things 1984 and Stranger Things 3. We are at an early stage and we still have a lot of work to do in the coming months, but this is our first step”.
This latest tweet made me think about how Netflix has evolved, who its competitors are/could be. Here is a graphic summary that I made of Netflix’s journey -
Blockbuster was one of the major competitors to Netflix in the early 2000s. Who are Netflix’s competitors now?
Over the past 24 years, Netflix has been adapting to newer business models and disrupting the market. Rise in the sale of DVD players, affordable data speeds, cheap bandwidth costs, and making prompt changes in business strategy have been major contributors to Netflix’s success.
As Netflix enters the world of video games as one of the first OTT companies, it will be interesting to see how it competes with existing video game giants and shapes the world of entertainment.
Fin.
