Netflix 'Seriously Researching Cloud Gaming', Opens New California Studio

"It is a value add. We are not asking you to subscribe as a console replacement," said Netflix Games Vice President Mike Verdu.

Netflix has recently added around 2.4 million subscribers globally.

Source : Getty

San Francisco: Netflix has expanded cloud gaming by opening a new studio in Southern California. The company's vice president of gaming, Mike Verdu, revealed two pieces of information concerning the streaming giant's entry into games, reports TechCrunch. According to Verdu, the platform is "seriously researching a cloud gaming offering".

"It is a value add. We are not asking you to subscribe as a console replacement. It is a completely different business model. The hope is over time that it just becomes this very natural way to play games wherever you are," he added.

The company is expanding its internal studio in California in order to speed up game development.

Former 'Overwatch' executive producer, Chacko Sonny, will work as the studio's head in California. Overwatch was a huge hit at Blizzard Entertainment, earning billions of dollars.

"He could have done anything, but he chose to come here," Verdu was quoted as saying.

"You do not get people like that coming to your organisation to build the next big thing in gaming unless there's a sense that we're really in it for the long haul and in it for the right reasons," he added.

Since announcing its entry into the gaming market, Netflix has 35 games available and 14 more in development in its own studios, the report said.

Verdu said that it currently has 55 games in progress. These games offer both licensed IP like Spongebob Squarepants and experiences based on original IP like Stranger Things. Additionally, the company is making its original games.

Netflix has recently reversed subscriber loss and has added around 2.4 million subscribers globally. The subscriber growth for Netflix came from outside of the US, from the Asia Pacific region, which included India was the biggest growth driver for the streaming company. The company added 1.4 million paid users from the Asia Pacific region. 

Asia-Pacific is the smallest region for Netflix after the US and Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Latin America.

"Thank God we're done with shrinking quarters," Reed Hastings, co-CEO of Netflix, said in a statement during the company's earnings conference call.

(With inputs from IANS)