It’s good to be the CEO!

Could Netflix be the Netflix of games? – Jamie Brayshaw

Netflix's approach to its gaming platform involves getting popular games and enabling creative autonomy for developers. Despite low user engagement currently, Netflix is committed to learning from feedback.

Netflix's strategy for building its gaming platform involves acquiring rights to popular games and fostering a learning-focused environment where the developers maintain creative independence.

Despite slow initial growth, successful partnerships with studios such as Night School and Ripstone Games indicate a promising future.

Looking ahead, Netflix plans to intertwine gaming with its existing offerings of movies and TV shows, banking on the commonalities of storytelling and world-building.

You can read more about it on Movieguide.

Round-up of the day

Japan's total mobile game revenue is projected to reach $12.6 billion in 2023, a 3% YOY decline, mobile games generated $3.14 billion in Q1 2023, showing an increase from the $3 billion recorded in Q4 2022. (link)

According to a report, Lenovo is entering the handheld PC gaming market with the “Legion Go”. The device is expected to run on a Windows 11 operating system and offer “maximum PC gaming compatibility”.

I love my Steam Deck so I'm happy to hear more company get into handheld PC gaming. (link)

Ratatan, a spiritual successor to Patapon, has successfully launched a Kickstarter campaign, reaching its initial funding goal for a PC launch in less than an hour. 47 minutes, to be exact. And it's now close to half a million. (link)

Biz Reel

Electronic Arts is undergoing a management reshuffle as Samantha Ryan leaves the company, with changes including Rachel Franklin stepping up to manage Maxis and Full Circle, and disbanding the Positive Play Group to distribute its employees across different studios. (link)

Take-Two Interactive's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, and President, Karl Slatoff, are set to receive a combined performance-based payout of $72.3 million this year, more than double what they earned in 2022. In March, Take-Two confirmed employee layoffs, as part of a $50 million cost reduction program. (link)

The Ultimate tier of Xbox Game Pass has significantly increased Xbox's revenue between 2019 and 2021, contributing to an estimated total of $4 billion annually for the service. (link)

Game Central

Sony is introducing a beta firmware update for PS5, which includes Dolby Atmos support and enhanced accessibility features, initially rolling out to select users in certain regions. The update also brings support for larger-capacity M.2 SSDs, new social features and UI enhancements. (link)

Remnant 2 has achieved over 1 million sales within a week of its launch, surpassing the publisher's expectations. This success represents more than double the concurrent player records set by its predecessor, Remnant: From the Ashes, at launch. (link)

The launch window for the PS5 exclusive, Helldivers 2, has reportedly been leaked as of October 2023. This aligns with the recent assignment of a Mature (17+) rating from the U.S. ESRB to the game (link)