Netflix launches Game Night for TV play using phones as controllers, no downloads required

Netflix is beginning to explore new approaches within its Games offering with the introduction of Game Night, a feature that lets subscribers play selected titles on their TV using their phones as controllers, pretty similar to The Jackbox Party Pack titles. It requires no extra charge and works on compatible devices and web browsers, so no local downloads are needed. Players start by choosing a game on the TV and scanning a QR code with their phone, which turns it into a controller.

The initial catalog includes Boggle Party, Lego Party!, Pictionary: Game Night, Tetris Time Warp, and Party Crashers: Fool Your Friends. Alain Tascan, Netflix’s president of games, says the goal is to let users move from watching shows to playing games within the same app, without separate downloads. Netflix plans to add more titles throughout the holiday season.

Netflix is also expanding its mobile library with titles like Lego Duplo World, Barbie Color Creations, Paw Patrol Academy, and Toca Boca Hair Salon 4, and it plans to add releases such as WWE 2K25: Netflix Edition and the unexpected arrival of the original Red Dead Redemption. Another part of its gaming efforts is Netflix Puzzled, which aims to offer an alternative to light puzzles games platforms like the NY Times Games or Puzzmo through daily sudoku, crosswords, word searches, and puzzles themed around Netflix’s own shows on Android, iOS, and the Tudum blog, with its launch set for November 26. The company is also testing Best Guess Live, a weekday interactive quiz show with cash prizes available in the United States.