In a year that saw a search-engine-turned-tech-empire lag its way into the gaming space, it really shouldn't come as a shock that Netflix, a movie and television streaming service that most don't even realize they're signed up for, is starting to get serious about developing games based on its properties. News broke today that Netflix will be making an appearance at the annual E3 conference to not only showcase some of its up-and-coming games, but also present a panel aimed at rallying the developer community to its cause.
Aside from the previously-announced Stranger Things adaptation, not much is known about what other projects could be in the works. Considering that Netflix's library of original content seems to increase exponentially every month, it does not appear that they are in short supply for potential candidates.
Regardless of what projects Netflix moves forward with, I think the most important thing to wonder is how they are going to move forward, particularly in the way they plan on making their games. Thanks to the shitshow that were licensed games throughout the 90's and 2000's, I'm pretty sure the industry has become mostly aware that a game can no longer succeed purely on the merits of its source material. There needs to be substance, and it needs to be engaging enough to stand on its own outside of its native medium. This is where I think Netflix has the opportunity to do something remarkable.
Netflix is in a unique position with how it can approach its games in that storytelling can be the pillar that everything else is built around. If you look at some of Netflix's more recent foray into interactive films, you can already see that their goal is to make stories more encompassing and personal. I think that Netflix realizes that their greatest strength, and the value they can offer to the gaming community, is in the capability to bring their stories to life by putting you, the player, in the center of it all.
Now, I'm sure Netflix is more than capable of making this happen on their own, and I'd imagine everything I've said so far has been addressed in one of their arcade/pizzeria boardroom meetings, but allow me to take this one step further to suggest a move that would be the redemption story of the ages, and would undoubtedly generate Netflix an insurmountable amount of goodwill at the onset of this journey:
Bring back TellTale Games, or at least hire on the people that made it great.
I pose this as a suggestion bearing the cadence of a plea because a world where Netflix uses games to tell their stories is a world that Telltale Games helped build. Admittedly, not many of their games were commercial successes, but Telltale's games, for the most part, received critical praise that reflected a commitment to crafting audacious storylines that both honored and complimented its source material. Additionally, the two had previously worked together on A Minecraft story, which commendably managed to make a compelling and occasionally heartbreaking story out of 16-bit legos. That said, a union between Netflix and a revived TellTale games would be an unstoppable creative powerhouse, leveraging the former's bottomless pockets to provide the original stories, and the ladder's technical and creative prowess to put the player in the driver's seat.
The reason why Netflix didn't come to this conclusion during TellTales' unceremonious and grizzly demise is perhaps the one I don't want to see, or perhaps even understand. What I do know is that as someone who thoroughly enjoyed TT's particular flavor of interactive storytelling, this new gaming-centric future Netflix is carving out for itself should begin with a much-needed second chance.
