OTT & Transmedia : Netflix and video games by Christian Nommay

Right?! Those interactive shows are wild! Have you checked them out yet? I can totally see people from the gaming world and film industry holding hands to make those interactive projects - they have to know about the user experience, and no one knows more about that than gamers!

Dark Horse Comics is also getting into Video Games, right?

Yes, indeed.

Netflix certainly has the funding to start a dev studio and compete with Amazon on that front. But I'll have see if they follow through. They'd have to come up with something really unique for anyone to pay extra or have to buy more hardware. Personally I think they should stick with doing what they do best which is distribute game movies and shows (Castlevania, Resident Evil, etc.) Plus I'm not a big fan of the choose your own adventure show gimic as it pulls me out of the story.

Curious definitely, as a non gamer it's difficult ti get excited about, but interested to see how it works out and impacts both Netflix and the individual stories being developed.

For the moment, it seems Netflix wants to make free mobile games. If done right, it can be an interesting add-on to their movies or shows, but it can be tricky too.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/netflix-to-dive-into-vid...

Actually, in re-reading the article, I'm picking up on the concerns of Netflix making video games more than the excitement due to how they measure success: "Take this recent Gamasutra story, for example, which shows Google is about to start giving developers a cut based on how long people play their game. That might be how TV series’ are judged but...is not how video games work, and will clearly prioritise the development of long grinds over shorter, more impactful experiences.

We’re in danger of heading that way anyways, given the metrics Microsoft must be sitting on from Game Pass and that Google would also have looked at to have instituted that policy in the first place, but Netflix getting in on the action just feels somehow even worse, given the company’s own obsession with “hours watched” and its ruthlessness in killing off shows."

Interesting. How would you measure the success of a show or a game by impact instead of reach (or hours watched)?

That's an interesting thought. It's an archaic method of measuring success, by watch hours or play hours. By that token every videogame should be a battle royal like COD that has endless replay ability due to online competition. A better measurement, and of course this comes back to transmedia, is knowing your audience and it's size and expansion rate. If your audience is growing, keep investing.

I agree with both of you. Measuring the success of content by hours watched is a double-edged sword, and it doesn't necessarily mean that your audience is really engaged. For example, last month, I watched a few Netflix movies and I can barely remember what it was about because it didn't resonate and didn't have any impact on me. In contrast, I recently watched The Green Knight by David Lowery, and two weeks after, I'm still obsessed with it. There's even an official tabletop RPG adaptation of the movie to keep me even more engaged.

This seems like another behemoth mega-corporation trying to get hip with the kids. They want to cash-in on the whole gaming thing, but that is a poor motivation for content creation. They might make a few bucks offering third-party games, but the consoles have a lock on their own markets. PC gamers will most likely stick to their favorites among the PC services like Steam, Epic, Xbox app, etc. As far as making their own content, I would expect them to mimic others rather than lead the way. They will make some kid-friendly family-friendly games for the general market, but I cannot imagine them ever going toe-to-toe with AAA developers like Ubisoft.