"Whether you’re craving a casual game you can start from scratch or an immersive experience that lets you dig deeper into your favorite stories, we want to begin to build a library of games that offers something for everyone," video streaming giant Netflix announced on November 2 as it launched a set of new mobile games. Why games? The company is attempting to improve its entertainment offerings by moving beyond movies and television series and the entry into gaming marks its biggest step in this new direction. Netflix formally announced its plans for gaming in an earnings call in July: We view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV [...] We’re excited as ever about our movies and TV series offering and we expect a long runway of increasing investment and growth across all of our existing content categories, but since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games. The reason Netflix chose gaming for this experiment was also hinted in its earnings calls where the company said that the platform competes for screen time with not just other streaming companies but firms like Epic Games, the company behind the popular Fortnite game. While the platform may be able to leverage its considerable user base and attract them to try its games, it remains to be seen if this new…
