Netflix Plans New ‘Sonic’ Video Game, ‘Rebel Moon’ Spinoff As Slate Nears 90 Titles; ‘Squid Game’, ‘Queen’s Gambit’ & More Set As Synergy Plays

Dade Hayes
·2-min read

Netflix, which started its push into video games a bit more than two years ago, will have 86 games available to all subscribers by the end of 2023 as well as another 90 titles on its development slate.

The company on Wednesday announced a batch of titles coming in 2024, including a sequel to its Cozy Grove “sim” game and an extension of Zack Snyder’s two-part space opera Rebel Moon. A 2018 Sonic the Hedgehog outing, Sonic Mania Plus, is also on next year’s docket as an exclusive to Netflix.

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“While we’re still early in the journey, this last year we made foundational strides toward this goal” of being a destination for gamers, VP of Games Mike Verdu wrote in a blog post.

The Rebel Moon game, developed by Super Evil Megacorp, will take place following the events of Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire and Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver. Players will be able to choose a character for the the four-player co-op action game.

Along with Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit and Sonic Mania Plus, new titles in 2024 include FashionVerse, a high-tech version of dress-up, and Game Dev Tycoon, which enables players to start their own game development company.

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, asked last week about the gaming effort at a conference hosted by Wall Street firm UBS, cited a Too Hot to Handle game as a poster child for the company’s bid to leverage its emerging library of IP. The 2024 roster includes titles based on Virgin River, Squid Game, The Queen’s Gambit, Chicken Run and a number of other film and TV properties. Verdu wrote in the blog post that the “Netflix Stories” banner, used for the Too Hot to Handle companion, will showcase “an ever-growing catalog of interactive fiction based on our beloved series and movies.”

In addition to those synergy plays, the company has also made opportunistic moves like licensing three Grand Theft Auto titles.

Sarandos said “a bunch of positives” have come from the gaming push and that the company intends to continue growing organically rather than swinging any major Activision-scale M&A deals. Netflix did make smaller acquisitions of game studios as it positioned itself to enter the sector. While it is difficult to know if any of the company’s 247.2 million subscribers (as of the third quarter) signed up because of games, the management team views games as a valuable retention tool.

Mobile has been the main platform for games thus far, though Verdu said Netflix will expand its recent tests in the U.S., Canada and the UK of game experiences designed for TVs and computers.

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