Netflix gaming to be mobile-focused competitor to Apple Arcade, available to subscribers at no extra cost

Within days of a confirmation that Netflix is working on a gaming platform, the streaming major has now elaborated on its plans in the direction. The company has revealed some of the crucial aspects in which it will be entering the gaming segment, hinting at what users can expect in the coming future.

In its second-quarter earnings report published on Tuesday, Netflix mentions that the company is in the early stages of "further expanding into games." It stated that the new content category will form an extension of its interactive content like Black Mirror Bandersnatch.

In addition, it clarified that Netflix Games, as and when introduced, will be included in the existing Netflix subscription of a member. This means that Netflix subscribers will not have to pay any additional cost for playing those games.

The games, however, will not be compatible across various platforms as is the streaming service. For the initial phase, Netflix will primarily focus on producing games for mobile devices, the company has confirmed in the earnings report.

It will likely expand this mobile support to tablets and other touch display devices soon. Such a gaming platform will bring the streaming giant in competition with Apple Arcade, a game subscription service that Apple offers across its devices. It will be interesting to see how Netflix manages to fare against Apple's service on Apple's own devices. After all, Netflix is used by the majority of Apple users, proving its might as a strong contender in the space.

A future expansion to other platforms has not been mentioned as of now.

The new information on Netflix's attempts at a gaming platform comes days after the company hired Mike Verdu to lead the gaming project. Verdu is a game designer who has worked with Zynga, Electronic Arts and Facebook's Oculus division.

In its earnings report, Netflix mentions its views on gaming as "another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV." It cites its decade-long work in original programming and assures that its existing content categories are only expected to grow going forward. It thus finds this to be the right time to learn how its user base reacts to games.

It will be interesting to see how the streaming giant shapes up its gaming platform for its users. Since the Netflix moniker is associated with a lot of original content now, other than the streaming service itself, the company will have a wide selection of titles to base the games on. How does a Money Heist game sound?