Netflix, still in the early days of its video-game strategy, continues to expand the selection of games in its mobile apps — and later this month, the streamer will bow its first first-person shooter.
Since launching games worldwide in November, Netflix has rolled out 14 titles, available for no additional charge (and no ads) in its mobile apps. Those have ranged from casual puzzle and card games to scrolling arcade-style titles.
Now Netflix will soon introduce “Into the Dead 2: Unleashed,” a zombie-apocalypse shoot-’em-up described as the “ultimate runner/shooter hybrid.” It’s still too soon to tell whether Netflix games are moving the needle as execs hypothesize — in terms of attracting and retaining subscribers — but the addition of the first-person shooter title shows that the company wants to appeal to a broad segment of gaming enthusiasts.
In the game, from New Zealand-based developer PikPok, armed players must fend off ever-increasing zombie threats while “crossing treacherous terrain… Maim, mow down, and eliminate the Dead – anything to keep moving,” per Netflix’s description. The game features multiple chapters, dozens of stages (such as oil fields and military bases), hundreds of challenges (i.e., navigating burning forests and frozen mountain tops). Players can unlock and upgrade extras like weapons, firearms and explosives.
Netflix Games is also launching two new games on Tuesday: “Shatter Remastered,” a retro-inspired brick-breaking game also from PikPok; and “This Is a True Story,” from Frosty Pop, a narrative educational/role-playing game that shares a true story of a sub-Saharan African woman’s daily struggle to get water for her family.
“This Is a True Story,” based on actual interviews and experiences, lets players to explore a hand-painted landscape all while surviving a windstorm, catching poachers… and even befriending a goat. The game was developed in collaboration with charity: water, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries.
The 14 other games currently available in Netflix’s app are: “Arcanium: Rise of Akhan,” “Asphalt Xtreme,” “Bowling Ballers,” “Card Blast,” “Dominoes Café, “Dungeon Dwarves,” “Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story,” “Knittens,” “Krispee Street,” “Shooting Hoops,” “Stranger Things: 1984,” “Stranger Things 3: The Game,” “Teeter (Up)” and “Wonderputt Forever.”
As part of its video-game strategy, Netflix has acquired two game studios: Night School Studio, best known for its supernatural mystery adventure title “Oxenfree,” and Next Games, a mobile games developer based in Finland, whose titles include the story-driven puzzle game “Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales” and two based on hit zombie series “The Walking Dead.”
Netflix subscribers can download games directly from the streamer’s mobile app for both Android and iOS from a dedicated games row.
(Pictured above: PikPok’s “Into the Dead 2: Unleashed” on Netflix Games)
