Netflix teams up with Ubisoft to push video games
The streaming giant will launch three new mobile games next year based on the French firm's popular hits.
Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, Valiant Hearts, and The Mighty Quest will arrive for Netflix users on iOS and Android.
On September 10, the California-based streaming service announced a partnership with Ubisoft, the largest French video game maker known for developing Assassin's Creed, to launch three new mobile games.
The move comes as Netflix attempts to accelerate the growth of its gaming unit amid a slowdown in the company's streaming business. And that's not the only challenge for the popular video streaming platform. Netflix will partner with Microsoft to offer a subscription to its ad-supported video streaming service. Netflix made this decision after a disappointing first quarter , with the loss of subscribers for the first time in 10 years, and after years of resisting the idea of advertising.
And even in the gaming sector, the competition is fierce. Big Tech groups including Amazon, Meta, owner of Facebook, Google and Apple have all stepped up their investments in video games in recent years, vying to become the "Netflix of games," reports the Financial Times .
All the details.
THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN NETFLIX AND UBISOFT
Netflix and Ubisoft have announced the development of three mobile games based on some of the French company's video game franchises. They will be available to Netflix users starting in 2023. First unveiled at Ubisoft's annual digital event, Ubisoft Forward, the three games will expand the universes of Valiant Hearts, Mighty Quest and Assassin's Creed, and will be available on mobile devices exclusively for Netflix members worldwide with no ads or in-app purchases.
In this way, Ubisoft will be able to tap into a new audience and experiment with new formats for existing titles. Also last week, Ubisoft announced that Chinese tech giant Tencent will invest $ 297.3 million in the French game maker. The deal values the French developer at nearly $ 10 billion.
Regarding the partnership with Netflix, no details have been announced on the value of the operation.
THE ENTRANCE OF THE POPULAR STREAMING PLATFORM IN GAMING
The video streaming company led by Reed Hastings made its entry into the video game industry last fall and adds new games to its catalog every month. Currently, the titles are free and do not include in-app purchases. As TechCrunch points out, Netflix sees games as a means of growing and maintaining its existing subscriber base, and considering that the company has lost nearly a million subscribers, it's not hard to see why the company wants to invest in more games.
However, it is tough to convert the approximately 220 million subscribers into regular players. According to market intelligence firm Apptopia, there are approximately 1.9 million daily active users of Netflix's mobile games and it has been installed 28 million times. In contrast, King, a popular game publisher who makes Candy Crush, has about 30 million daily active users, reports the Ft .
A SLOW-DOWN IN THE VIDEO GAME SECTOR?
Finally, Netflix's boost with video games comes during a broader slowdown in the gaming industry, with console makers, video game publishers and game chip makers all reporting weakening sales and engagement in recent months. Just last week, the Snap company, owner of social media Snapchat,announced that it would lay off 20% of its staff of more than 6,000 employees and – among other measures – suspended its gaming plans.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/netflix-si-allea-con-ubisoft-per-spingere-sui-videogame/ on Mon, 12 Sep 2022 11:33:17 +0000.