After the Tentatives of Netflix, the first years in Games, who have seen him grow his mobile library, acquire studies and venture into triple development -before drastically changing the course, the new Streamer Games Chief, Alain Tascan, has established the company’s last vision. This, he says, is less about the console model and more about telephone controlled party games.
Tascan, a 30 -year -old industry veteran who recently served as executive vice president of games in Epic Games, joined Netflix last July, assuming the role of Mike Verdu, who briefly transition to the vice president of generative in Netflix before leaving the company. And with nine months in the transmission service now under his credit, Tascan recently described his vision for Netflix games in this year’s GDC.
As reported by the game business, that vision adopts a four -pointed approach, focusing on narrative and transmedia projects, a large conventional IP, in being a confidence destination for families and in party games played on televisions using mobile phones as a controller.
The latter, as Tascan sees it, is Netflix’s attempt to “interruption” of the Wii -style industry. “I love Wii,” he told The game Business. “I am very vigorous to reduce friction and eliminate it if we can. I see that the subscription is also friction. Maybe a good friction because it makes commercial sense … but the other friction is to have enough controllers for the family. Have a piece of hardware that could be expensive … waiting for a game to download … [looking at] All obstacles and ask ourselves if we can reduce them as much as possible. ”
As such, it may not be surprising to hear Tascan’s dismissal to the classic console model. “[When it comes to] Console, we begin to look at the future where the platform is agnostic, “he said.” Look at the youngest generation. Are the eight -year -old children and the 10 -year -old children who dream of having a PlayStation 6? I’m not sure. They want to interact with any digital screen, whatever, wherever it is, even in the car. With the console in which he is thinking about high definition, he is thinking about the controller … if we look at this previous model, I think it will restrict us. ”
Tascan also seems that classic classic console style games have a lot of value for Netflix, which could explain why the transmission service recently sacrificed the staff in the respected study by Oxenfree Developer Night School, and why he closed his high-profile triple-a study before he could launch a game last year. “Do you really need to be these super complicated RPG games?” He stood up for the game business. “There is a place for them, sure. But this is what is interesting for me … What do we give? [Netflix subscribers]And how, so that they can enjoy and get involved with [games] again and again?”
The answer to that question is, apparently, party games. “I think we can give instant fun, using the telephone controller as a very innovative controller,” Tascan explained. “On each phone you have a gyroscope, you have a microphone, you have a speaker, you have a touch screen … If you give that to creative people, what do they do? Are you already alone, or with two people or 20 people, why not? Can we do something really attractive?”
“We need to boost the vision more than anything else and try to interrupt,” he continued, “because I think the threshold you need to get so that people entertain the games is very high … In terms of the interruption we can bring, the distribution is one and the other is the phone as a controller. The communication between the phone and the TV. The IP The few cards to play.
“We have some very special competitive advantages,” Tascan added. “We have simply scratched the surface. For example, for the squid game, you see the program and unlock some currency in the game. But that is just the beginning. Imagine places where you see something and then something special appears in the game, and maybe in the future you do something in the game and then you see something for AI or what you have, and something happens there. We have many things that we can imagine and reimagin.
It doesn’t matter how Tascan vision of party games promoted by mobile devices, unlockable currency and the collection of “AI or whatever you have” insists that Netflix is in the long -term games business. “If you look at our two co-ceos … and you look where Netflix was 10 years ago in terms of their main business … They know the way to be stubborn, worker, to innovate, have a vision and chase him … I think when they told me that the games were important, because if [Netflix] He wants to entertain the world that there is no way around him, we need to be in the games. When I look at these two leaders in particular … I believe in their complete commitment. ”
