Netflix Games Eyeing New Monetisation MOdels

I Guess the Rate Hikes Aren't Covering the Bills

It appears that even Netflix is not immune to reality crashing down on them along with everyone else who heavily invested over the last few years in the gaming industry. Dropping lots of cash on developers and titles for their platform is not panning out the way they expected with reports having them explore either in-game adds or purchases to help support their games initiative. 

I think this would severely undercut the value proposition of games on Netflix which arose from providing an ad-free video service. I can't imagine people paying for an ad-free tier of games in addition to the rising costs for Netflix's main offering (movies and TV), even with the precedent set by Apple Arcade. 

Interesting, they also claim that less than 1% of users are accessing games on their service. This I think is the more telling and pressing issue. A quick look at the experience on mobile and it's easy to see the issue right away. 

Games are suffering from a severe lack of a positive user experience. The games are mixed in with the other video genres. Also, all games are clumped together in one long row, making discoverability, even for the relatively small catalog a chore. A basic redesign of the UX would do wonders for games - giving them their own section accessible by a icon on the navigation bar at the bottom, games grouped by genre, and banners to promote games are just a few quick and dirty fixes they could apply.