Netflix's paleolithically slow, careful entry into cloud gaming advanced another screw turn Monday when the streaming company started testing its wares with a "handful" of users in Canada and the UK on connected TV devices.
The rollout will extend to Macs and PCs equipped with "select browsers" in the "next few weeks," Netflix said.
The first games included in the "initial test" include: Oxenfree from 2021 Netflix acquisition Night School Studio, and Molehew’s Mining Adventure, a gem-mining-themed arcade game.
"To play our games on TV, we're introducing a controller that we already have in our hands most of the day — our phones. Members on PCs and Macs can play on Netflix.com with a keyboard and mouse," explained Netflix VP of Games Mike Verdu in a company blog post.
"This limited beta is meant to test our game streaming technology and controller, and to improve the member experience over time," Verdu added.
Netflix's CTV games will initially be supported by these TVOS device platforms: Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV and Chromecast, and LG and Samsung smart TVs. Walmart ONN-branded TVs and Nvidia Shield devices, which are powered by Android TV, are also listed on the support list, which Netflix said will expand on an "ongoing basis."
Netflix famously hired former Electronic Arts and Facebook/Oculus operative Verdu to lead its gaming charge 25 months ago. The company soon bought out some notable indie gaming studios and went to work developing a line of simple mobile games, some of them loosely based on Netflix TV show IP, including Stranger Things.
But the headlines originating from Verdu's unit have quieted lately. And Netflix mobile games are only being played by a tiny fraction of the company's nearly 240 million subscribers worldwide.
According to released in July from analytics company Sensor Tower, since Netflix Games launched in November 2021, its titles have been downloaded 44 million times. That works out to an average of 2.3 million downloads per month, or approximately one for every 100 Netflix subscribers.
