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Not only is Netflix a huge force in series, films, anime and plenty more they're also now getting into video games. Coming from a report on Bloomberg, it certainly looks like we're going to see one of the biggest streaming players enter the cloud gaming / game streaming market.

In the report it mentions that Netflix has now hired Mike Verdu, a former VP at Facebook Reality Labs who also worked with EA prior to that. Verdu will be vice president of game development at Netflix. Sounds like we will see games on Netflix within a year if it all goes well, with games being sat in their own category just like everything else on the service.

They're in a good position for it course, with well over 200 million subscribers that they can hook into. Can you imagine it? The next time you load Netflix after it all goes live, you're greeted with big splash adverts for streaming games? The possibilities of this are interesting. Netflix already works on Linux, although due to the version of Widevine used we do see lower quality of Linux so we're keen to see how this would be handled when done through a browser.

Does sound like a logical expansion for Netflix. Considering they already work with video games for some of their shows, they've teamed up with the likes of Valve and Riot to have shows made from their games and they also do a few different interactive series / movies like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Minecraft Story Mode and others.

What do you think to this news, would you use a gaming service from Netflix?

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29 comments
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Tim Jul 15, 2021
Sorry for being salty, but all this sounds like RIP PC gaming.
kokoko3k Jul 15, 2021
Sorry for being salty, but all this sounds like RIP PC gaming.
Nah, you can't push VR XOR online gaming.
TheSHEEEP Jul 15, 2021
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Prepare for your favourite video game series getting cancelled before the conclusion of the story. Or any conclusion whatsoever.
Can't wait!

I'm only subbing to any of these to watch specific series (or movies) that are already concluded. Anything else just seems to be a waste of time.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 15 July 2021 at 10:24 am UTC
kokoko3k Jul 15, 2021
First game published on Netflix online gaming platform https://www.terribleposture.com/3-out-of-10/
(joke)


Last edited by kokoko3k on 15 July 2021 at 10:34 am UTC
Interloper Jul 15, 2021
Honestly, after the Cuties incident, Netflix should not get any kind of publicity.

Nefarious and disgusting company. I hope they fail.
Eike Jul 15, 2021
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Just when I thought: "Hey, don't we need a seventh cloud game streaming service!?!"
Julius Jul 15, 2021
Hmm... given that Valve already does cooperate with Netflix on some things, I wonder if there is any link there. While Valve would probably be able to make their own cloud streaming service (utilizing servers from someone like AWS or IBM/RedHat), they have so far been quite reluctant to do so and I think they have realized that their customer base doesn't want "yet another streaming subscription service" (like they don't want "yet another exclusive game store").

So short of not entering this market at all, maybe they just say... lets make a cooperation with Netflix? Seems like a good partner as they don't compete with Valve otherwise and they already have the servers and customers.
Cybolic Jul 15, 2021
Honestly, after the Cuties incident, Netflix should not get any kind of publicity.

Nefarious and disgusting company. I hope they fail.
They made a terrible poster - let's not throw the whole company out over one bad marketing decision. If you have an issue with the movie itself, I suggest you read this to at least get a picture of why it exists.

Anyway, back to games.
Zlopez Jul 15, 2021
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It looks like the games will be at the same place like movies, audio and e-books are nowadays, where you have a hard time to actually find something that is distributed in some open format. Now you can at least download games with DRM attached (praise to GOG for distributing non-DRM games), but looking at the game streaming services popping up, it seems that this wouldn't be true in the future. Let's see how this ends, but I'm afraid that in few years you will not be able to play anything AAA without streaming it from some cloud service.

Let's hope my vision is not true, but the games are the only part of the entertainment world that is not yet DRM online only in most cases.
Dorrit Jul 15, 2021
I'll never, ever, use streaming services for whatever purpose.
My movies and TV series are on DVDs, the music on CDs, the games on HDDs and the books on paper.
Streaming/cloud/online is just another way of control over the populace, together with video surveillance, facial recognition, smart phone apps...
Covid passports anyone?
Digital money Ma'am and Sir?

Shove your Brave New World where the sun doesn't shine.
Cybolic Jul 15, 2021
Just when I thought: "Hey, don't we need a seventh cloud game streaming service!?!"
Considering how poor the global availability is of the current ones, some competition that might be able to reach other locations surely can't hurt :)
TheSHEEEP Jul 15, 2021
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Honestly, after the Cuties incident, Netflix should not get any kind of publicity.

Nefarious and disgusting company. I hope they fail.
They made a terrible poster - let's not throw the whole company out over one bad marketing decision. If you have an issue with the movie itself, I suggest you read this to at least get a picture of why it exists.
That defense is absolute hogwash. She is either dishonest and knew exactly what they were doing, or she seriously has the most flawed logic on this planet.

"Something is bad, so let's make a movie doing EXACTLY what we think is bad to show how bad it is"
Can't wait for their next movie where they actually kick and shoot puppies to show bad it is to kick and shoot puppies.
Or what about gun violence? Other, even more despicable acts?
Where's the line in what can be done to people in order to create a media product?
I'll tell you: The line was a few dozen kilometers before Cuties and they went over it with a nitro boost.

The whole company defended this disgusting piece of media and can be safely described as disgusting as a result, as can anyone else defending sexualization of minors.

But, honestly, you don't even need any of that to not like Netflix.
Them cancelling everything left and right that doesn't have the very highest viewership numbers is more than enough reason to not waste your money, IMO.
Just sub for maybe a month, watch what you want, then unsub again - if it really has to be.
Zlopez Jul 15, 2021
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I'll never, ever, use streaming services for whatever purpose.
My movies and TV series are on DVDs, the music on CDs, the games on HDDs and the books on paper.
Streaming/cloud/online is just another way of control over the populace, together with video surveillance, facial recognition, smart phone apps...
Covid passports anyone?
Digital money Ma'am and Sir?

Shove your Brave New World where the sun doesn't shine.

I don't like to have physical copies of movies or music, it's just something you will rip (not possible everytime, because of DRM) and then just throw away (I don't even have a way to play them anymore). For the books, when they are not available in my country it's too much money for shipment so it's not feasible for me.

But I agree the streaming is killing the rights to own something and helps with the surveillance.

And with the Covid passports, you mean the same that Linux Foundation started to work on? :-D
Cybolic Jul 15, 2021
Honestly, after the Cuties incident, Netflix should not get any kind of publicity.

Nefarious and disgusting company. I hope they fail.
They made a terrible poster - let's not throw the whole company out over one bad marketing decision. If you have an issue with the movie itself, I suggest you read this to at least get a picture of why it exists.
That defense is absolute hogwash. She is either dishonest and knew exactly what they were doing, or she seriously has the most flawed logic on this planet. [...]
Regardless of what you think of the film or the director, Netflix's part in this is that they picked up the feature film debut - the script for which had already won the Sundance Global Filmmaking Award - of a director whose previous short film won over 60 awards.
They are a media distribution company and this film certainly qualified as something that had a good chance of finding an audience, at least on paper.
Remember, they didn't produce it, they picked it up for international distribution and the defence you read in that article should give a decent indication as to what they intended to distribute, no matter how the film ended up connecting.

Anyway, games.
dubigrasu Jul 15, 2021
The games will appear alongside current fare as a new programming genre -- similar to what Netflix did with documentaries or stand-up specials. The company doesn’t currently plan to charge extra for the content
If so, I see no reason not to try it at least.
F.Ultra Jul 15, 2021
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"Something is bad, so let's make a movie doing EXACTLY what we think is bad to show how bad it is"

That is how films/books done to raise awareness of topics have been done since the invention of fiction. Compare with anti war movies like Platoon, Apocalypse Now and so on.

The controversy over Cuties was only over the initial poster (and mostly in the US alone) by Netflix, an act that the co-CEO of Netflix even apologised to the director for doing (most likely the marketing department didn't understand the film what so ever). Once released it has been given high scores by film critics and have a 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Other than that I cannot comment further on this film because I have not seen it.
Cyril Jul 15, 2021
Honestly, after the Cuties incident, Netflix should not get any kind of publicity.

Nefarious and disgusting company. I hope they fail.

I can't watch the video, because blocked in my country... but it seems it's the trailer.
What the issue about it? It's the film itself?
Eike Jul 15, 2021
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I can't watch the video, because blocked in my country... but it seems it's the trailer.
What the issue about it? It's the film itself?

The trailer seems ok to me. Especially annoying was Netflix' US poster, compared to the French one...

https://nypost.com/2020/08/20/netflix-deeply-sorry-for-cuties-poster-after-backlash-for-sexualizing-kids/
Cyril Jul 15, 2021
I can't watch the video, because blocked in my country... but it seems it's the trailer.
What the issue about it? It's the film itself?

The trailer seems ok to me. Especially annoying was Netflix' US poster, compared to the French one...

https://nypost.com/2020/08/20/netflix-deeply-sorry-for-cuties-poster-after-backlash-for-sexualizing-kids/

Yeah sorry I didn't read all posts when posted my comment. Yeah a lot of people, in France at least (I'm French), have speak about the US poster and mostly disagree with it, but the problem here is that because of this a lot of people simply refused to watch the film but still they spit on it...
As I watched the film, it's a good film and obviously don't deserve the shitstorm IMHO.

But yeah, my final word about it, let's stay of the topic.
slaapliedje Jul 15, 2021
Prepare for your favourite video game series getting cancelled before the conclusion of the story. Or any conclusion whatsoever.
Can't wait!

I'm only subbing to any of these to watch specific series (or movies) that are already concluded. Anything else just seems to be a waste of time.
I'd play Money Heist as a video game :P but yeah, totally agree about it being canceled before the conclusion :P
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