Arcane, The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077… Is Netflix the Eldorado of video games?

Gaming News Arcane, The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077… Is Netflix the Eldorado of video games?

Founded in 1997 by two friends, Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, Netflix was just a mail order DVD rental company back then; an anecdote reminiscent of the video clubs of the time. In 2007 the company really took off in the still vague terrain of internet streaming in the USA and was soon preparing to publish its first own series, house of cards, produced by David Fincher, among others. Fifteen years later, it is a service fed by dozens of video game adaptations in particular, which enforces its dominance in the SVOD market.

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Arcane, Edgerunners, The Witcher… Les adaptations Triomphantes

Every year it’s the same story, Netflix pulling out all the stops by producing a slew of adaptations of popular video games as if faithfully clinging to a well-found vein. After Arcane, a series set in the League of Legends universe that has won four Emmy Awards, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has shone in recent months.. The series is such a hit that it even boosted the popularity of CD Projekt’s game. Created by studio Trigger (Darling in the FranXX, Kill La Kill), the adaptation serves as an excellent introduction to the universe, gradually introducing the key elements of Night City and being dubbed by many fans as “the best promotion you can do for the game“Edgerunners clocked in at 14.8 million hours in the six days following its release; excellent results, but not nearly enough to dethrone Arcane, which clocked in at 34.1 million hours over the same period.

On December 25, subscribers to the service can also dive back into the world of The Witcher, not with Season 3 expected for 2023, but with Blood Origin. Set 1200 years before the events of the base series, the spin-off will focus on the adventures of the first witcher and the conjunction of the spheres. It’s probably thanks to The Witcher’s Voyages that Netflix was able to build a solid reputation in the JV adaptation, or even thanks to the Castlevania series, legacy of stellar reviews. Think of a big triple A in video games today and you’ll realize that it’s a message associated with Netflix, if not another SVOD platform. Ubisoft also recently confirmed a partnership with the Reed Hastings platform to develop an Assassin’s Creed game exclusively for the catalogue. alongside a live-action series adaptation currently in the works.

Of course, video game adaptations are not only very successful on Netflix. The Resident Evil series, for example, will be canceled after just one short season. Low viewership led to the cancellation of the program, which nevertheless started with 72.7 million hours of viewership in its first week before slowly falling victim to the Stranger Things juggernaut. Viewer and critic acclaim is far from helpful, with a 55% critical score and 27% audience score on RottenTomatoes

. As a general rule, adaptations of the Capcom saga have rarely been able to garner attention. Either way, failure is a grain of sand in the fertile soil of the video game universes Netflix cultivates by applying itself. Horizon, BioShock, Tomb Raider… they too will soon be entitled to their own production on the platform and will be able to count among their ranks big names in the field who can ensure great success. And as we write this, a series adaptation of The Medium game has just been announced. If the decision-making platform isn’t really specified, there’s little doubt knowing it’s backed by the executive producer of The Witcher series.

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Customization, yes, but real wild, a little less…

When Netflix released its results for the first quarter of 2022, it reported a drop of 200,000 subscribers for the first time in its history. A loss of momentum that is nonetheless explained by extenuating circumstances, including a return to normal life after months of confinement and international conflict: “After international sanctions against Russia, Netflix lost over 700,000 paying Russian subscribers. Without this impact, the service would have added an additional 500,000 subscribers overall

‘ says a spokesman. However, the service knows it needs to stay the course to increase its appeal and reassure investors in a sector that is now very well tapped by other companies like Disney+, Amazon Prime, and MyCanal. The current strategy is to go beyond a simple adaptation to fully embrace the video game market. A plan of action that started a few months ago with the acquisition of the talented studio Night School Studio, at the origin of the Oxenfree license, and Next Games for the distribution of mobile games.

Oxenfree is now available on Netflix

Today, Netflix even has its own video games section accessible on its platform. It offers 24 games, some of which are very good, and plans to grow to 50 by the end of the year. But the record is frankly bad at the moment: According to a new CNBC report, just 1.7 million subscribers interact with the service’s games every day, which would account for less than 1% of Netflix’s 221 million subscribers. However, the giant does not give up and recently announced the establishment of an internal development studio based in Helsinki, Finland. It doesn’t have a specific name yet, but it does have an experienced executive in the industry: Marko Lastikka, the former general manager of Zynga Helsinki. It’s just the beginning for Netflix:

We’re just getting started and still have work to do to provide a great gaming experience on Netflix. A game can take years to develop, so I’m proud to see how steadily we build the foundations of our game studios in our first year, and I look forward to sharing with you what we’ll be producing for years to come. – Amir Rahimi, Vice President of Netflix Game Studios