Netflix eyes cloud gaming and opens another studio

Streaming giant Netflix is opening another gaming studio, this time in Southern California, and it's eyeing up a move into cloud gaming.

In the clouds: It's not worked out well for the likes of Google.

• Netflix's Vice President of Gaming, Mike Verdu, revealed the nuggets of information at TechCrunch Disrupt.
• The company wouldn't be the first to bet on cloud gaming, of course. Both Google and Amazon have made the move already, with the former shutting down Stadia in January.
• The VP believes that the aforementioned efforts have struggled due to their business models, not due to cloud gaming technology itself.
• “We’re not asking you to subscribe as a console replacement,” Verdu said during a talk. “It’s a completely different business model. The hope is over time that it just becomes this very natural way to play games wherever you are.”

The studio: Netflix is betting big on games.

• The new studio in Southern California will be Netflix's fifth location that's dedicated to games.
• It'll be led by Chacko Sonny, the former Executive Producer of Overwatch for Activision Blizzard.
• In September the company revealed that it would open up its fourth gaming studio — its second based in Helsinki, Finland — led by Zynga's former General Manager, Marko Lastikk.
• Other studios owned by Netflix includes Next Games, Night School Studio, and Boss Fight Entertainment. Each has been designed to focus on different types of games.