Netflix‘s games strategy is getting a nitro boost from Rockstar Games’ crime-tastic Grand Theft Auto series, one of the best-selling video-game franchises of all time.
The three classic titles in “Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition” will be available Dec. 14 for Netflix customers at no additional charge on mobile platforms. Starting Wednesday, Netflix members can preregister to play the games — “Grand Theft Auto III,” “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” and “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” — each updated for mobile. Netflix users will be able to access the titles via Apple’s App Store, Google Play and the Netflix mobile app.
Take-Two Interactive’s Rockstar Games originally released “Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition” in November 2021. The collection, which has a list price of $59.99, is available for PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X and Nintendo Switch.
The older GTA games are coming to Netflix as anticipation builds for “Grand Theft Auto 6,” the series’ first major release in a decade. Rockstar Games last month said it will release “the first trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto” in early December.
The Grand Theft Auto titles will join Netflix’s growing lineup of more than 80 mobile games across multiple genres. The streaming giant’s strategy is to bundle games into the core service to enhance its overall value to consumers, without ads, in-app purchases or extra fees.
Two years after Netflix debuted its first games, company execs say the strategy is meeting its goals of lifting total customer engagement. This summer, it kicked off a test of games on PCs and connected TVs. “Our job is to incrementally scale to the place where games have a material impact on the business,” co-CEO Greg Peters told analysts on the Q3 2023 earnings interview last month. “We’ve got ambitious plans there. We want to really grow our engagement by many multiples of where it is today over the next handful of years.”
Netflix’s latest game additions include several based on popular original series and films. Those are “Chicken Run: Eggstraction,” tied to Aardman’s “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget”; an interactive-fiction game for hit series “Money Heist” (“La Casa de Papel”); narrative role-playing game “Shadow and Bone: Enter the Fold,” based on the fantasy series; and “The Dragon Prince: Xadia,” an RPG based on the animated show. In the works is a multiplayer action game from Super Evil Megacorp based on Zach Snyder’s “Rebel Moon” movies coming to Netflix.
Here are descriptions of the three GTA titles coming to Netflix on mobile:
- “Grand Theft Auto III – The Definitive Edition”: Welcome to Liberty City. Where it all began. With a massive and diverse open world, a wild cast of characters from every walk of life, and the freedom to explore at will, Grand Theft Auto III puts the dark, intriguing, and ruthless world of crime at your fingertips.
- “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – The Definitive Edition”: Welcome to the 1980s. From the decade of big hair and pastel suits comes the story of one man’s rise to the top of the criminal pile. Grand Theft Auto returns with Tommy Vercetti’s tale of betrayal and revenge in a neon-soaked tropical town full of excess and brimming with possibilities.
- “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition”: It’s the early ’90s. After a couple of cops frame him for homicide, Carl “CJ” Johnson is forced on a journey that takes him across the entire state of San Andreas, to save his family and to take control of the streets.
