Netflix wants to gamify its audience

The Future. Netflix’s newest gaming experiment, Netflix Stories, is allowing subscribers to become playable characters in their favorite shows. The new series may be trying to solidify the streamer’s gaming strategy around popular IP to boost interactivity on the platform, as it’s attempted with Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and the (ill-fated) Love is Blind reunion livestream. For Netflix, it may all be about getting subscribers in the habit of checking out programming beyond TV and movies — opening up new avenues for advertising revenue and subscription growth.

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Netflix Stories is turning some of the streamer’s most popular shows into RPGs.

• The first title in the collection, debuting September 19th, is Netflix Stories: Love is Blind — a mobile game that allows players to create characters who can interact with avatars of contestants from the show.
• Netflix also has games planned for narrative shows like Money Heist and Virgin River, which will all live in a separate Netflix gaming app.

While most of Netflix’s gaming ambitions exist outside of the mother platform, it all feels like a test to see if it’s worthy of inclusion. Going the popular IP route seems to be Netflix’s best bet considering the only game that appears to have taken off with users is a chess game based on The Queen’s Gambit (no surprise considering how the show boosted chess worldwide).

If Netflix’s experiments pay off, we may soon see Netflix binges end with “Do you want to play?” instead of “Are you still watching?”