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Netflix has announced it is acquiring Spry Fox, the indie developer behind games such as Cozy Grove and Alphabear. The acquisition adds to the streaming services kitty of an in-house gaming studio, a move that is likely to shape what Netflix would become in the next few years. Maybe a game streaming company. Also Read – Netflix opens new gaming studio to expand cloud gaming
Spry Fox said that the acquisition by Netflix will not impact users for now and the games that it publishes will be available for download as-is. “After many heartfelt conversations, we are all excited about joining Netflix as an in-house game studio and building amazing games together,” said Daniel Cook, co-founder of Spry Fox in a blog post. While customers will see no immediate changes, the acquisition is likely another milestone toward Netflix’s next goal. Also Read – Netflix has finally found a way around password sharing: Check details
“Our games journey has only just begun, but I’m proud of the foundational work we’ve been doing to build out our in-house creative capacity so that we can deliver the best possible games experience — including no ads and no in-app purchases — to our members as part of their membership,” Amir Rahimi, the vice president of game studios at Netflix, said in the blog post. Also Read – Netflix Profile Transfers feature: How to use it in India
Netflix’s gaming efforts
Spry Fox is Netflix’s sixth in-house gaming studio. The video streaming service has so far acquired Helsinki-based Next Games, Boss Fight Entertainment, Oxenfree developer Night School Studio, and some other studios in Finland and Southern California. Netflix’s vice president of gaming, Mike Verdu, recently announced that the company is building a new gaming studio in Southern California.
With a handful of gaming studios now working under Netflix, the company is hopeful that it will not confine itself to just offering streaming services for movies and shows, but leap forward to offering games to its users. But developing games is a time-taking process — something Netflix has admitted, saying that it is still early days for its mobile gaming efforts.
Netflix launched its mobile games around one year ago, allowing its subscribers access to a narrow collection of games on both Android and iOS for no extra charge. These games are garden-variety, but Netflix’s spree to acquire gaming studios hints at the company’s long-term vision for mobile gaming. And that is cloud gaming, as hinted at by Verdu at a recent event.
Cloud gaming emerged as the next big thing for the gaming industry, spearheaded by the likes of Google and Amazon that beat major gaming companies, such as Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony in launching their services. Google launched Stadia but pulled the plug on it after its struggling nascent years. Amazon’s Luna is still trying to find its feet because of its underwhelming collection. Meanwhile, bigger gaming companies, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nvidia, are ushering gamers to the next generation of the industry.
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