Netflix has launched a cloud gaming beta test on TVs, with computers to follow

Netflix‘s gaming endeavors seem so half heartedly and bored out of their mind. Like they have the money, they can buy a studio or a publisher or two if they want to get into games. But they only seem to talk about gaming if times are tough (losing subscriber last year, actor-writer strike this year) and forgetting about it as soon as quarterly results are better than expected. And then cloud gaming? Really? If Microsoft cannot do it today without additional latency over consoles, with a steady framerate and without compression artifacts, Netflix won’t fare better and realistically worse. The cloud gaming optimists(!) are expecting USD 17 billion cloud gaming market size by 2028. This is negligible compared to the gaming market at large and will need to be shared by a lot of players. I thought we were over this, when Stadia closed.

Google could have made it work. They just did some weird business decisions. You can't use your existing game library. You must buy full price games from them even if it's a discount on other stores. So customers are left paying both a subscription and full retail price for the game. People don't like double dipping. They required the developers of the games to design it specifically for them, or at least make a build for them. That's not necessary, might be an efficiency, but we've seen lots of other streaming providers shadow and GeForce now not require that

If they just let you run steam games like GeForce now does, I think they would have had a huge audience.

Because Netflix is a horrible company that will make millions from a service like this, but pay those indie devs pennies.

Because Netflix has a history of buying Android games and releasing them under their own name. Meaning to play a fucking Android game, you need an active Netflix subscription.

Let's not support this garbage. Hope Netflix fails in gaming.

Because it's the nightmare scenario for consumers. Imagine your next favorite game is a Netflix exclusive.

You can only access it through Netflix streaming. You cannot own the game, ever. You can't even pirate it. Netflix can take it away at any moment and it will be gone forever.

Now imagine what they could do with so much power. They could make simple features cost extra. Want ultrawide? That's $2.99/month. Want 120 fps? That's $4.99. Want an FOV slider? Special offer, only $0.99! Extra save slots? You betcha it costs extra.

You can forget about modding or tweaking your experience in any way. Shaders like reshade, texture packs, input handling improvement (including for those with special needs) will no longer be cluttering your mind.

All that sucks, but you have to play this game. One day you're playing and you're so immersed in a very tense section of the game, you've practically forgotten the outside world exists. Wait why did my image change? "This new fabric softener will keep your sheets fresh for weeks!". Oh right, it's the ad break.

Well that sounds like a completely miserable experience. You've about had it. You're cancelling your Netflix and going to their competitor. Oh... The only way to access this game is through Netflix streaming.

Some people really are braindead marketing zombies

Poinpy is a fantastic android game