We’ve got some excellent news for Netflix fans. Namely, the world-renowned streaming platform has officially entered the gaming world!
At the beginning of November, the streaming platform launched an Android-based mobile game service. And although Netflix claims to be fully functional on iOS devices, Bloomberg tech reporter, Mark Gurman, states that the Apple store will most likely prevent said games.
In essence, Apple has a long history of forbidding third-party apps from acting as game hubs on its system. Consequently, this prompted a lot of controversy among cloud gaming providers such as Nvidia GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Google Stadia.
In fact, it was only by delivering their games through a web app, as Facebook did previously, that cloud gaming companies could get past this.
Furthermore, Netflix hopes to sidestep Apple’s rules by making its games available on the App Store. In other words, you won’t be able to download or play the games through the Netflix app; you’ll only be able to launch them.
On Android devices, the games are nicely bundled in a dedicated tab within the Netflix app but have to be downloaded from the Google Play Store separately — hence why, according to Gurman, Netflix’s games will eventually move to the cloud.
Again, this would be fine for Android devices, yet Apple’s regulations make cloud gaming nearly impossible, forcing providers to rely on rudimentary web apps.
At the moment, it’s unclear whether Netflix on iOS devices will ever be a thing. And seeing how Apple reached a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion in 2021, they’re in no rush to do so.
Last but not least, Gurman adds that Apple will have to modify its rules or allow Netflix an exemption, placing Netflix’s long-term future in the hands of Apple — a long-time partner and (ironically) a growing competitor.
