Netflix dives deeper into gaming: launches beta test for Game Streaming on multiple platforms

Netflix has been betting on the gaming industry since November 2021 as a complementary business model to its streaming of audiovisual content, with its mobile gaming offerings being a free perk for subscribers. So far, the company's titles have only been available on iOS and Android, but now the company plans to expand its game catalog to more platforms, launching a game streaming feature that will allow users to play games on other devices like smart TVs, using a smartphone as a controller. The platform will initially offer two games, "Oxenfree" and "Molehew’s Mining Adventure", and will be in beta test open to select subscribers in Canada and the UK for now.

The beta test supports various devices including Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast with Google TV, LG TVs, Nvidia Shield TV, Roku devices, Samsung Smart TVs, and Walmart ONN. Netflix plans to expand device support and extend the beta test to Windows and Mac computers, using web browsers on Netflix.com with keyboard and mouse controls.

With this move, the company is stepping into strong competition with other game streaming services, such as Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming, NVIDIA's GeForce NOW, Amazon Luna, and Sony's beta for streaming PS5 games. Netflix has previously provided mobile games to subscribers at no additional cost, but the uptake has been relatively low. We will see if this new 'game streaming market' is what it needs to establish a presence in the gaming industry or if it's just a matter of time before it ends up like Google Stadia.