Netflix Games Releasing First-Person Shooter Into The Dead 2: Unleashed
Streaming giant Netflix announced that they were going to introduce video games to their platform last summer, but so far they've only released a handful of mobile games, all of which were previously released elsewhere. Fans weren't exactly clamoring to play "Stranger Things: 1984" or "Stranger Things 3," given that they had both been out for a while, and the other three games at launch were simple sports games. The launch of the game line was a little underwhelming, and their latest announcement doesn't exactly inspire confidence in what's to come.
According to Variety, the fifteenth game to be added to the Netflix Games section will be "Into the Dead 2," a zombie shooting action game that has been freely available on Google Play and the Apple store for a few months now, with options for ad-free, paid versions as well. While the Netflix version is likely to be the ad-free, paid version of the game, it still doesn't feel all that exclusive, and doesn't directly tie into any of Netflix's franchises.
Kill zombies, pet this dog
It's understandable that Netflix wants to be competitive with other streaming services and offer as much entertainment as possible to their subscribers, but the video game roll-out has been pretty rough. By adding previously-existing games to their collection of movies, they're mostly just taking up server space at this point. Why would anyone go to the Netflix Games app to play a handful of games that they could get directly from the studios on a variety of app stores? There aren't any exclusives, there's been no push for Netflix-branded content, and it seems like they only half thought out the idea before committing to it.
On its own, "Into the Dead 2: Unleashed" looks like a pretty solid little apocalypse survival shooting game, and the trailer for the Google Play store release of the game shows that you can pet this adorable digital dog, which is a bonus in my book. Fans of games like "Dead Rising" and "Left for Dead" are sure to find something to love here, and the graphics are pretty impressive for something people are playing on their phones.
There's no telling exactly how this Netflix game experiment is going to go, but they're going to have to start promoting the games and creating tie-in content if there's any real chance of success. There are plenty of Netflix titles that could easily be made into the same kinds of side-scrolling platformers already on the app, so why not do something original? If every streamer on the planet can make their own version of "Squid Game," why isn't there a "Squid Game" mobile game? Or a Mike Flanagan-universe mystery game? Netflix has the money and the talent on-hand to create something great, so it's a real shame that they're just dropping other people's content onto their gaming service instead.