Netflix has a new plan for games
Netflix Games is getting its first MMONetflix just announced Spirit Crossing during a press event at GDC 2025. Spirit Crossing represents a first for Netflix, becoming the service’s first MMO offering. It was developed by Spry Fox, one of Netflix’s in-house game studios, and will launch sometime later this year.
Spirit Crossing is described in the press release as a “cozy MMO.” Its launch trailer certainly gives off typical “cozy” game vibes with cute creatures, pastel colors, and chill music that wouldn’t be out of place in a Lo-fi Girl stream. The game will feature customizable housing and neighborhoods for players, open-world exploration, and lots of crafting. Spry Fox is known for several cozy-style games including Cozy Grove and its Netflix-exclusive sequel Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit. Netflix acquired the studio in 2022 as a part of its gaming initiative.
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Netflix’s original gaming chief is gone.
The Electric State is getting a prequel.
But it’ll be a video game. Netflix is continuing to push its gaming efforts towards tie-ins with its streaming offerings, and the latest example is Kid Cosmo, a puzzle game that launches for subscribers on March 18th, just a few days after The Electric State premieres.
Netflix’s cloud plans include co-op and party games
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Netflix plans to offer couch co-op and party games that it will stream over the cloud to TVs, co-CEO Greg Peters said as part of the company’s Q4 2024 earnings announcements this week. The company has offered cloud gaming as a beta to a “subset” of subscribers since 2023, so this news from Peters indicates that the company is going to continue to invest in it.
Peters didn’t say exactly when the co-op and party games might be available. But he did say that “we think of this as a successor to family board game night or an evolution of what the game show on TV used to be.”
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Squid Game: Unleashed is a fun game and a terrible adaptation
Image: Netflix
In Squid Game, schoolyard games are turned into nightmares, as players compete to survive and — if they’re lucky — earn a massive cash prize. But in Unleashed, a new mobile spinoff that’s part of the streamer’s fledgling gaming efforts, those games are fun. It’s a strange experience that sands off much of the appeal of Squid Game in service of making a multiplayer party game.
Unleashed is sort of like Fall Guys but in a Squid Game wrapper. You compete against 31 other players across three random games pulled from the show, like “red light, green light” or racing across a bridge made of glass. Slowly other players die off, and by the end one wins a whole bunch of money.
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Monument Valley 3 comes to Netflix with an iconoclastic edge
Image: Netflix
Tucked away in a leafy part of south London, the historic Oval cricket stadium peeking above nearby houses, some 30 developers at Ustwo Games have been striving to solve one of the defining creative conundrums of modern entertainment: how do you balance the familiarity of a beloved franchise with freshness? The problem is exaggerated with Monument Valley, the acclaimed puzzle series that debuted in 2014. The architectural puzzles of the first entry already felt crystalline; the minimalist aesthetic was already fully formed. Can such a refined formula even be evolved?
Monument Valley 3, which arrives on mobile devices via Netflix on December 10th, answers that question confidently: yes, and then some.
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Netflix’s Squid Game mobile game is coming out soon.
Honestly, I don’t think Unleashed looks very good. But Netflix’s mobile games lineup has certified bangers like The Rise of the Golden Idol, so if Unleashed is a bust, there’s other things to play.
Netflix is removing nearly all of its interactive titles
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
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.
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Netflix is getting a daily word game from TED.
“Slide rows of scrambled letters to spell words in this thought-provoking word puzzle game from TED,” according to the App Store description for the new game, TED Tumblewords. Seems like the game is trying to be Netflix’s Wordle.
The new game is set to launch on November 19th on Android and iOS, though you’ll need a Netflix subscription to be able to play it.
Images: Netflix
Netflix closes AAA game studio before it ever released a game
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
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.
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I think this game is about sports.
Just in time for the summer Olympics, Netflix has launched a multiplayer athletics competition with the very on-the-nose title of Sports Sports. It’s available on mobile now (so long as you have a Netflix subscription, of course).
Netflix has a new gaming boss after hiring former Epic exec
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
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.”
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Netflix’s latest game is a mobile take on MinesweeperNetflix 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.
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Netflix’s June line-up of games: very cozy with a hint of thirst.
Netflix’s gaming boss is moving to another role at Netflix in gaming.
I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished, and excited to start a new team at Netflix on the cutting edge of game innovation.
He will apparently stay on as VP until a replacement is found and then work on “new technologies” (maybe something in the cloud?) in game development.
The future of Netflix games could look like reality TV
Image: Netflix
“On a multi-national TV and movie streaming service there lived a hobbit.”
That’s not quite how J.R.R. Tolkien started The Hobbit, but that’ll be how it goes when hobbit life simulator Tales of The Shire arrives exclusively on mobile via Netflix. Netflix also announced a ton more games joining the service this month and beyond including several games based on Netflix shows, The Case of the Golden Idol, and Don’t Starve Together.
The sequel to Animal Crossing-like Cozy Grove hits Netflix in June
Image: Netflix
Netflix has a good case of Mania.
Every week in May, Netflix will release a new game starting today with Sonic Mania Plus. On May 14th go back in time with Braid, Anniversary Edition which includes a brand-new Netflix exclusive level. Paper Trail comes the week after on May 21st and finally Netflix’s own choose-your-own romance game, Virgin River launches May 29th. Katana Zero is also coming in May with a release date coming soon.
Netflix continues run of excellent indie games with Hades in MarchNetflix 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.
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Ubisoft turns Rainbow Six teeny tiny for new game on NetflixThe 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.
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Performance testing Grand Theft Auto’s latest remastered re-release.
So how does it run? Digital Foundry’s iOS analysis is here, finding that despite an uneven framerate and iffy gamepad support, it “probably offers the best portable experience at the moment.”
How to easily find the GTA trilogy (and other games) on Netflix
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.
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