Evercore ISI Senior Managing Director Mark Mahaney explains why he raised his price targets on Netflix and Chewy on “Varney & Co.”
Netflix wins when viewers binge its shows. Now it is hoping they’ll do the same with video games as it looks to further scale those offerings.
Co-CEO Gregory Peters said last week that Netflix wants to “continue to grow” engagement in its gaming “to the place where it has a material impact on the business” in the coming years.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NFLX | NETFLIX INC. | 642.17 | -0.59 | -0.09% |
The streaming giant detailed some of its efforts to boost its video game business as it released its second-quarter earnings, including a new cadence of releases for its “Netflix Stories” interactive fiction games and publishing a “Squid Games”-inspired multiplayer game. It started venturing into gaming with mobile games roughly three years ago.
Netflix detailed some of its efforts to boost its video game business as it released its second-quarter earnings. (Mario Tama/Getty Images/File)
For its “Netflix Stories” games that draw on the streamer’s original content, Netflix said it was moving to debuting a new game each month. That release pattern is beginning this month, with games inspired by the popular series “Emily in Paris,” its new season drops in August, and “Selling Sunset,” coming soon, according to the company.
The cast of “Emily in Paris” attends a special screening of season 3 in New York City on Dec. 15, 2022. (Nina Westervelt/Variety via Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, Netflix said it will “premiere a multiplayer game based on the Squid Game universe later this year timed to the launch of season two of our biggest TV series ever.” In it, users will “compete with other players in games from the hit series,” the company previously said.
“Squid Game” is on track to become Netflix’s biggest hit ever. (Netflix)
Speaking about the company’s opportunity in gaming, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said it was “pretty rare for the new content vertical like this to actually complement or draft off of each other.”
“I think the idea of being able to take a show and give the superfan a place to be in between seasons and even beyond that – to be able to use the game platform to introduce new characters and new storylines or new plot twist events – now you could do those kind of things, and then they can then materialize in the next season or in the sequel to the film,” he added. “It’s a really great opportunity and a rare one where 1 and 1 equals 3 here, and to kind of replicate some of the success we’ve seen building fandom and with live events and consumer products, this actually fits really nicely into that.”
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images/File)
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