Netflix’s gaming arm hopes ‘Squid Game’ adaptation will validate its mobile approach

The past few months have been a mixed bag for Netflix’s gaming department. In late July, the company appointed the veteran game developer Alain Tascan to lead its gaming push. Since then, Netflix’s gaming department has been marked by a layoff of roughly 35 employees, as well as the closure of one of Netflix’s in-house game studios internally known as Studio Blue.

On Dec. 1, Netflix plans to delist the majority of its interactive shows and films, including titles such as “Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous: Hidden Adventure” and “Captain Underpants Epic Choice-o-Rama.” (A Netflix representative declined to make an executive available for interview or provide an on-the-record comment for this story.)

The layoffs at Netflix Games have led some observers to speculate that the company is scaling down its gaming ambitions going into 2025. But former Netflix gaming lead Mike Verdu is hitting back at those rumors. Verdu, who recently started a new role as Netflix’s vp of generative AI for games, took to LinkedIn over the weekend to both announce the new job title and take a shot at the doomsayers.

“Pay no mind to the uninformed speculation in the media about the changes in Netflix Games,” Verdu wrote. “What you’ve seen over the last several months was actually a planned transition.”

Studio Blue, the recently closed studio, was a team largely composed of game developers with traditional backgrounds in the console gaming space, with high production values and a multi-device strategy. The studio’s closure reflects Netflix’s continued focus on mobile and cloud gaming, rather than a significant shift in the company’s gaming strategy, according to sources close to the matter.

“I don’t believe that Netflix thinks in a way about ‘AAA’ or ‘AA,’ [industry lingo for premium, big-budget games] or any of that sort of traditional nomenclature about what defines a game,” said Gareth Sutcliffe, the head analyst covering the games industry for the market research service Enders Analysis. “I think they’re much more lateral in terms of defining the game experience, particularly when they are looking at a technology-led distribution model, around streaming, around multiple devices, tied in with the SVOD [subscription video on demand] offering.”

The real test for Netflix’s gaming push could be coming as soon as next month. The second season of “Squid Game” comes out on Dec. 26, and Netflix has announced that its official video game adaptation, “Squid Game: Unleashed,” will be rolling out at the same time.

The simultaneous release is a marketing coup for the video game, which is likely to see a spike in playership thanks to the popularity of the television series — but if “Squid Game: Unleashed” isn’t both a loyal adaptation and genuinely fun to play, it could sour Netflix users against future adaptations of the platform’s biggest properties.

“It’ll be the largest television show globally for weeks. When that launches, it will be absolutely massive, and they’re shipping a game simultaneously,” Sutcliffe said. “I think that’s really aggressive, and I think that that’s really incredibly clever.”

“Squid Game: Unleashed” is the largest video game adaptation of a homegrown Netflix property so far, but it’s not the only big release that the company is gearing up for going into the holiday season. On Dec. 10, the company is exclusively publishing “Monument Valley 3,” an original game and the third iteration of the long-running “Monument Valley” series.

Rather than pushing all of its users toward major tentpole releases, Netflix is trying to build out a deep library of games for its users to play, much like the platform’s ever-expanding streaming video library. The company has never released official internal figures regarding its games, but total Netflix game downloads reportedly crossed the 210 million threshold in September, with titles from the popular “Grand Theft Auto” series accounting for 36.6 million of those downloads.

Netflix’s gradual entry into gaming is occurring alongside the platform’s push to build out its advertising arm. Gaming has commanded an increasing share of audiences’ attention in recent years, and although Netflix does not currently serve ads alongside its games, the company has reportedly been exploring in-game ads since early 2024. As the release of Netflix’s biggest game yet grows near, in-game advertising experts are cheering the platform on.

“When someone is at IAB showing the graph of attention and marketing spend in gaming, Netflix is a part of that attention,” said Max Bass, director of emerging connections at the agency Gale. “So, to me, it’s important, whether we can advertise on there or not.”