Netflix launches a new game studio from scratch in Finland

Netflix launches a new game studio from scratch in Finland

Netflix has announced that it’s launching a new game studio that will be based in Helsinki, Finland. This will join Next Games, Night School Studio, and Boss Fight Entertainment to develop titles for Netflix Games. What’s unique about this new internal studio, however, is that it’s starting from nothing, rather than coming under Netflix’s wing as an acquisition.

The company said that Marko Lastikka will act as studio director. He has worked for gaming giants Electronic Arts and Zynga over the last decade. His experience in executive roles at those companies should make him ideal for heading up Netflix’s new internal games studio.

The fact that Netflix is still pursuing its gaming ambitions with new game announcements yesterday and this announcement today, shows that Netflix is very serious about gaming. With financial conditions getting tougher and consumer spending falling, companies are scaling back their non-core activities. As Netflix is still pursuing gaming, it appears gaming is now a core focus for the streaming company.

It’ll definitely be interesting to see what Netflix does in the future. Right now, it’s focused on mobile gaming, but over the last few years, companies have been turning to game streaming. As its core business is streaming video, perhaps we could see it expand into game streaming too to take on the likes of Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, and NVIDIA GeForce Now.