It wasn't PlayStation, Switch, PC, or Xbox that dominated my family's gaming this Christmas - it was Netflix, on the TV (3 Viewers)

[ShortieGamez]

My household is tricky to please. A 12-year-old who essentially wants to play Fortnite 24/7, a four-year-old who wants to do what the 12-year-old is doing but can't because she's four, and me and my wife who want to do anything that'll keep those two happy for more than five minutes so we can sit on the sofa and drink a coffee because we deserve FIVE GODDAMN MINUTES! It doesn't sound like much of an ask, but it really is, trust me. I needed a Christmas Golden Goose, something I could tap into whenever family harmony started to teeter towards a level of chaos no amount of Cadbury's Heroes could remedy - while the Bluey scavenger hunt game is good, it definitely skews more four-year-old, and traditional video games were off the menu. In my festive hour of need, as if sent by Santa himself, Netflix provided. Yes, Netflix. And no, we didn't just watch The Grinch on repeat (although we did watch it a lot - the animated one, not the naff Jim Carrey one).

I think it's fair to say that Netflix has approached video games like a lot of companies trying to break into that industry do: there's money to be made so they throw money at it and hope something good happens. Amazon, Apple, and Google are three giants who have tried or are trying with very mixed results, seemingly oblivious to why the biggest names in gaming became the biggest names. Netflix, while dabbling with console and PC games, has focused mainly on mobile, accessed directly from its app as part of your subscription - and this has borne some tidy exclusives (both developed and acquired). While I have enjoyed the likes of Poinpy and Red Dead Redemption on my phone, it is only thanks to the relatively new Game Night offerings that I've seen the potential of Netflix games on the family TV.

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It wasn't PlayStation, Switch, PC, or Xbox that dominated my family's gaming this Christmas - it was Netflix, on the TV

Netflix might have finally cracked video games with games that appeal to everyone.

www.eurogamer.net

Have you checked out games on Netflix through your TV? How are you finding them?

 

[Aught-O-Matic]

I haven't heard of a single person playing games on Netflix. Game streaming just isn't catching on, with most platforms having low user counts or committing a Stadia (also known as dying). Most parents I hear from say their kids are most into Nintendo, with an occasional PlayStation user popping up. No matter how much game journalists and providers like Netflix try to push it, game streaming just isn't what people want right now.

 

[iXanon]

My wife and I played Boggle a handful of times. We had a quick go with Overcooked, but it plays much better on PlayStation..