COULD THE ‘NETFLIX FOR GAMES’ EVERYONE KEEPS HOPING FOR ACTUALLY BE… NETFLIX?
With so much of our media streamed, it’s a matter of time before games get onside
Sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror returned late last December with interactive film Bandersnatch. Beyond tracking your choices from previous runs, it played it safe with its choice-driven narrative by offering solely binary choices. That said, there’s no denying it was a big hit with people less familiar with games, and that’s not a bad thing.
This isn’t Netflix’s first foray into interactive fiction – Minecraft: Story Mode debuted last year, and that was preceded by a number of similar titles in 2017. On Minecraft’s release, Netflix representatives told TechRadar the company didn’t “have any plans to get into gaming.” But with the service’s further expansion into interactive fiction, at some point, one would think, getting into games would be a no-brainer (and an incredibly lucrative one at that).
NOW BUFFERING
With PlayStation Now allowing users to download or stream select PS2, PS3, and PS4 titles to their consoles, Netflix would not be without competition. If you’ve got a long memory, you’ll recall my opinion way back in issue #145 defending the spotty usability of the (at the time) streaming-only service. The recent introduction of the ability to download and play titles offline as long as you have an active subscription is a move that speaks to the potential I referenced all those months ago.
I still think Sony’s missing a trick by not expanding its library into the PS1 era but I understand that services like Netflix and PlayStation Now are at the mercy of licence holders. Besides, games, in particular, have the new media problem of figuring out how to preserve themselves, with many master copies already likely lost to the sands of time. Streaming services are not necessarily the solution, but could help older titles to find a modern audience which may then care about their preservation.
A true ‘Netflix for games’ could be closer than we think. And while Netflix is resolute in referring to Bandersnatch as an interactive story rather than a game, it’s clear from playing it what Bandersnatch thinks it is.