Netflix Says Kids Don't Care About Consoles: '8-Year-Olds Aren’t Dreaming of PlayStation 6'

Netflix's President of Games, Alain Tascan, is expecting a aboriginal procreation that relies little connected gaming consoles arsenic large players similar Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo propulsion guardant with caller hardware.

The pb of the streaming giant’s video crippled part shared his thoughts connected however gaming fans mightiness soon play their favourite titles during an interrogation with The Game Business that took spot pursuing a Netflix presumption successful San Francisco. During the lawsuit itself, Tascan was asked if the streamer had immoderate volition of taking a ace astatine console gaming, but he’s not truthful definite younger gamers are adjacent funny successful what thing similar a PlayStation 6 could bring to the table.

“[When it comes to] console, we started to look astatine the aboriginal wherever the level is agnostic,” helium explained. “Look astatine the younger generation. Are 8 year-olds and 10 year-olds dreaming of owning a PlayStation 6? I americium not sure. They are wanting to interact with immoderate integer screen, immoderate it is, wherever it is, adjacent successful the car. With console you’re reasoning astir precocious definition, you’re reasoning astir the controller […] If we look astatine this older model, I deliberation it volition restrain us.”

Tascan told The Game Business that he’s got a brushed spot for console gaming contempt his concerns, specifically calling retired Nintendo’s Wii arsenic a idiosyncratic favorite. He’s spent galore years astatine studios specified arsenic EA, Ubisoft, and Epic Games successful the past, truthful the thought of much accepted console crippled releases is acold from overseas for him. For Netflix, though, things are trending successful a antithetic direction.

Netflix says kids don't attraction astir consoles. Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

While the institution has a proven way grounds for creating crippled adaptations for its IPs with subscription add-ons similar Stranger Things 3: The Game, Too Hot to Handle: Love Is a Game, and more, it’s besides experimented with giving users entree to notable, acquainted games similar Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition. Each crippled tin beryllium played consecutive from a mobile telephone if a subscriber chooses, and arsenic Tascan clarified during that caller event, Netflix volition beryllium doubling down connected this strategy arsenic it develops enactment games and establishes itself arsenic a hub for kids and gamer families.

“I americium precise vigorous astir lowering friction and eliminating it if we can,” helium told The Game Business. “I spot that the subscription is friction arsenic well. Maybe bully friction due to the fact that it makes concern sense, but inactive we did the trial of eliminating subscription for [mobile game] Squid Game: Unleashed. And we whitethorn bash different tests.”

He continued: “But the different friction is having capable controllers for family. Having a portion of hardware that mightiness beryllium expensive, that’s different friction. Waiting for a crippled to download, that’s different friction. I americium [looking at] each the obstacles, and asking if we tin trim them arsenic overmuch arsenic possible.”

Netflix said successful aboriginal 2024 that games engagement had tripled passim 2023, signaling that it would proceed investing successful the abstraction successful the aboriginal aft a 2021 CNBC study suggested little than 1% of subscribers were tapping into its games offerings. In October 2024, the streaming elephantine chopped backmost connected its gaming ambitions erstwhile it unopen down its AAA workplace headed by erstwhile Overwatch, Halo, and God of War developers. A Game Developer study from past period said cuts had besides precocious deed Oxenfree developer Night School Studio, a squad Netflix picked up successful 2021.

As Netflix seeks to pat into a marketplace that it expects to beryllium uninterested successful crippled consoles, there’s small crushed to uncertainty we’ll spot thing similar a PlayStation 6 oregon adjacent Xbox from Sony and Microsoft, respectively. Nintendo, meanwhile, is teetering connected the borderline of a brand-new console procreation with its highly anticipated Switch 2 device. It volition propulsion backmost the curtain connected its caller tech with a focused Direct presumption adjacent week, with galore fans expecting to perceive much astir what features the Switch 2 brings to the table, its merchandise date, and however pre-orders are being handled.

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

Michael Cripe is simply a freelance contributor with IGN. He's champion known for his enactment astatine sites similar The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be definite to springiness him a travel connected Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).