Netflix Bought a Gaming Studio

The streaming giant paid an undisclosed amount last week to acquire Texas-based game developer Boss Fight Entertainment, its third gaming studio purchase since last summer and second this month.

⏮👾 Background… Netflix acquired indie game developer Night School Studio last September, globally debuted games to all users this past November, and then purchased Finnish studio Next Games – who developed its Stranger Things titles – for $72 million earlier this month.

🎮 📸 The big picture: As an early entrant into the streaming market, Netflix enjoyed the first-mover advantage – and the new subscriber growth that came with it – for quite a while. But competition from other platforms like Disney+, Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount Plus, etc. has led to a subscriber slowdown.

2021 saw Netflix’s lowest new subscriber growth in six years, and so far, 2022 doesn’t look much better. The company is forecasting 2.5 million new subscribers this quarter vs. the 4 million it added over the same period last year. (And the 8+ million new subs it added in Q4.)

• Long-term, Netflix sees gaming as a way to attract and retain subscribers. But the initiative is still early-stage; on its Q4 earnings call the streaming giant said its initial launches were focused on gathering data to determine what consumers may want from the service.

+Worth mentioning: Last week, Netflix added two new games and teased its first upcoming first-person shooter title: Into The Dead 2: Unleashed.