Netflix mulls launching cloud gaming service, days after Google shut its own

Netflix VP-Games Mike Verdu announced that the company is opening a new gaming studio in California led by Chacko Sonny, who left his role as executive producer on Overwatch at Activision Blizzard last year.

Online streaming platform Netflix is mulling its cloud gaming platform, this a year after it introduced its mobile games lineup comprising titles like Stranger Things: 1984, Stranger Things 3: The Game and others.

The OTT giant’s vice-president of games Mike Verdu at a TechCrunch Disrupt conference made the announcement. Netflix is looking to use its expertise in streaming data to enable people play games over the cloud, The Verge reported.

Emphasising that the company is seriously exploring a cloud gaming offering to reach out to subscribers on TVs and PCs, Verdu said that the streaming platform will approach it the same way as mobile games. This comes on a day when Netflix announced that it has 55 more games under development.

Recently, search engine giant Google shut its cloud gaming platform Stadia after three years of launch. In its blog post, the firm said it has been forced to shut down the service because it did not get the traction as expected. Google had already stopped internal game development last year.

Google had said the games can play the games available in their Stadia library till January 18. It also clarified that all the progress made in the game will be lost as most of the games available on Google platform do not support cross-progress play.

Netflix is hopeful of succeeding in the field where Google failed. Verdu said that the cloud game will be a value addition to Netflix’s business model. He also said that the streaming giant is not asking people to subscribe to it as a console replacement, the Verge report added.

The streaming giant’s VP-Games announced that the company is opening a new gaming studio in California led by former Activision Blizzard executive producer.