All the news about Netflix’s gaming efforts

Netflix will delist just about all of its interactive shows and films as of December 1st, the company confirms to The Verge. Netflix’s “Interactive Specials” page lists 24 titles, but only four will remain: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend, Ranveer vs. Wild with Bear Grylls, and You vs. Wild.

The removal of the titles marks a disappointing conclusion to Netflix’s earliest efforts into interactive content. The company first launched the interactive titles in 2017 with Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale, and I remember being wowed (and horrified) by paths in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.

The first cracks are starting to show in Netflix’s push into gaming. First reported in Game File and confirmed by Netflix, the streaming company has quietly closed of one of its studios, the first in the three years since the company began its foray into gaming.

According to Game File, the shuttered studio was known as Blue. In 2022, Netflix announced it hired former Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny to run the studio. Since then, Blue had brought on a number of game industry veterans with experience working on high profile franchises including Halo and God of War. Reportedly, Blue was developing a multi-platform AAA game for an original IP but was closed before the game could be announced or released.

There’s a new name in charge of Netflix’s ongoing gaming efforts. As Variety reports, the streamer has hired Alain Tascan as the new president of its gaming division, after he previously served as executive VP of game development at Fortnite maker Epic Games. The news comes as the game division’s former boss, Mike Verdu, moved into a different role at Netflix focused on a new team “on the cutting edge of game innovation.”

In his previous role at Epic, which he held since 2018, Tascan was in charge of the company’s first-party output, which included not only Fortnite and its various modes like Lego Fortnite but also other live-service games like Rocket League and Fall Guys. In a statement, Tascan explained that he took the role at the streamer because “I firmly believe that Netflix is uniquely positioned to redefine the future of gaming.”

Netflix is launching Minesweeper as part of its selection of subscriber-only games, and it’s available now on Android and iOS.

The classic puzzle game that most people know from Microsoft Minesweeper, available in Windows 11 and versions dating back to 1990, has a fresh coat of paint with colorful graphics and new modes. Netflix’s take on Minesweeper looks a whole lot like, well, Minesweeper, but it adds a Journey Mode that takes players to different levels across world stages as well as unique daily challenges.

Netflix is continuously adding to its diverse portfolio of games, announcing a new slate of titles set to launch on the platform this summer and beyond. And while the “serious gamer” might be enticed by the pending arrival of The Case of the Golden Idol or Don’t Starve Together — games that have enjoyed success on other platforms — it’s interactive fiction games that are the most exciting both for Netflix and its gaming community.

“Expanding the worlds of beloved Netflix series and films is our greatest opportunity in games,” wrote Leanne Loombe, head of external games at Netflix, in a recent blog post.

Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit, from Spry Fox games, will soon be added to Netflix’s ever-expanding lineup of games. Camp Spirit is the follow-up to Cozy Grove, an Animal Crossing-inspired crafting and survival game, but with ghosts instead of dog musicians and tanuki low-interest home loan providers.

In Camp Spirit, you’ll fulfill the wishes of dearly departed bears. (For a studio called Spry Fox, it’s kinda hilarious that nearly all of its games focus on bears.) You’ll also work on improving your haunted island, turning it into a lively community for the deceased.

Netflix continues to strengthen its lineup of games with Hades launching on iOS mobile on March 19th. The launch comes with a fancy new trailer highlighting how mobile controls will work for the escape-from-hell roguelike and you can pre-register for the game here.

Hades represents the latest in a handful of popular games Netflix is adding to its growing roster. You can already play Oxenfree II, Kentucky Route Zero, Before Your Eyes, and Spiritfarer, while Katana Zero, Sonic Mania Plus, and Braid are due sometime this year. Late last year, Netflix added the Grand Theft Auto trilogy, which became its biggest gaming launch despite Netflix not sharing what “biggest gaming launch” meant in hard numbers. Netflix is also working on direct streaming of its games to TVs and PCs, testing the program in the UK, Canada, and to select users in the US.

The typically gritty world of Rainbow Six is getting a colorful makeover. Ubisoft just revealed the franchise’s latest spinoff, a mobile game called Rainbow Six: Smol that shrinks down the tactical action and adds a whole lot of goofy personality. The game is available now through Netflix games on both iOS and Android.

“We saw an opportunity here to widen the audience a bit, with a more approachable take on the Rainbow Six universe,” creative director Renaud Forestié tells The Verge. The game features what Forestié describes as the pillars of the franchise — which include the Operator characters and destructible environments to open up new strategies — but introduces a top-down viewpoint and a cutesy art style. You can get a taste for it in the trailer above.

Netflix just released its biggest games yet. The Grand Theft Auto trilogy — which includes GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas — is now available on both iOS and Android, and the games are all free to play if you’re already a Netflix subscriber. But while the streaming service has offered mobile games for a while now (and added some excellent titles to its library), actually finding games you want to play can be a bit fiddly. In the mobile Netflix app, every game is confined to a single row, which means lots of scrolling around icons that don’t seem to be in any particular order.

It’s definitely easy to miss things. So here’s a handy trick for finding all the games Netflix offers — and it works on both Google Play and the App Store.

Netflix is adding the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition to its ever expanding, ever impressive roster of games just in time for the holiday need-a-20-minute-break-from-the-family season.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition (which we’re going to call the GTA Trilogy for simplicity’s sake) is a remaster of GTA III, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas. Players can pre-register for the games starting today on iOS and Google Play. It will be available both in the Netflix mobile app and offered separately to Netflix subscribers in the App Store and Google Play.

As Netflix’s foray into cloud gaming expands, so, too, will the kinds of games the company offers. “We feel like there is a real big opportunity with cloud to create a certain type of game experience that really is tailored to Netflix on TV,” says Leanne Loombe, Netflix’s head of external games.

Netflix’s cloud gaming efforts are still very early and follow nearly two years of releasing games exclusively on mobile. Right now, only two titles are available as part of a cloud beta test on TVs and PCs, including Oxenfree. But as the service grows to include more titles, Netflix says that the kinds of games offered will differ based on platform — meaning there will eventually be titles on Netflix designed to play only on your television or PC and not a smartphone. No specifics were announced but think console-style games that don’t translate well to a touchscreen.

Netflix is expanding its games streaming beta to the US, the company announced in an update to a blog post. The feature, which lets you play games streamed from the cloud on devices like your TV or a computer, launched first in August in Canada and the UK.

In the blog post, Netflix notes that it’s a “limited” beta test, so it seems like this won’t be available to too many people to start. (Netflix used that same “limited” language with the initial launch in Canada and the UK.) Like with the original test, the only two games available to stream are Oxenfree from Netflix’s own Night School Studio and another game titled Molehew’s Mining Adventure.

Netflix is announcing not only a new game today but also a new line of narrative-driven experiences. It’s called Netflix Stories: Love is Blind, and — unsurprisingly — it’s a mobile game based on the popular Netflix reality show, where players can take on the role of a new contestant. It seems similar to the existing title Too Hot to Handle: Love is a Game, which Netflix says is one of its most popular games.

The Love is Blind game launches on September 19th, and interested parties (who are also Netflix subscribers) can preregister to download it now. Perhaps more interesting than the single new game, however, is that the streamer says that more of these “Netflix Stories” titles are also in the works, including ones based on Money Heist and Virgin River. All of the games will be contained in a new app. Here’s how the company describes the effort: