Netflix is building its own internal video game studio in Finland

By Cristina Alexander September 26, 2022

Netflix has announced that it is building an in-house mobile games studio for Netflix Games in Helsinki, Finland.

Amir Rahimi, Netflix’s VP of Games Studios, said in a press release Monday that Finland is the perfect place for Netflix Games to call home, as it is the birthplace of “some of the best game talent in the world,” such as Angry Birds creator Rovio and Next Games. Netflix acquired the latter studio earlier this year.

Related Videos

The internal games studio will be the fourth studio for Netflix, along with Next Games, Night School Studio, and Boss Fight Entertainment, and it will be led by former Zynga co-founder and manager Marko Lastikka. The company said that each studio will be tasked with developing games catering to different tastes. However, its studio and its games will take some time to build.

“It’s still early days, and we have much more work to do to deliver a great games experience on Netflix,” Rahimi said. “Creating a game can take years, so I’m proud to see how we’re steadily building the foundation of our games studios in our first year, and look forward to sharing what we produce in the coming years.”

Netflix Games launched last year in an effort to push into the mobile gaming market. Its games library has more than two dozen titles, including Poinpy, Before Your Eyes, Stranger Things: 1984, This Is A True Story, Into the Breach, and the League of Legends spin-off Hextech Mayhem. It aims to have 50 tiles by the end of the year.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Gaming

Metroid Prime Remastered gives the best video game soundtrack its due

Samus stares down Thardus in Metroid Prime Remastered.

Despite first playing Metroid Prime over 20 years ago, parts of it still came back as clear as day to me as I played through its excellent Switch remaster. I could still recall the exact moment when I experienced my first Metroid, as it bursts out of its test tube and starts wildly zipping around. I remember every camera shot leading into the Thardus battle. I’m even able to find some of its most hidden collectibles with a bit of muscle memory I never even knew I retained.

Even with so much of the first-person adventure game is branded into my brain, there’s one aspect that I can always recall with particular clarity: its soundtrack. Metroid Prime’s original soundtrack is one of the brightest highlights in a game full of them, offering players a host of atmospheric sci-fi tracks to scan and blast to. Each composition is bursting with personality, from its X-Files-like opening theme to the almost West Coast hip-hop synths of Chozo Ruins.

Gaming

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit’s studio has made an AR Hot Wheels game

Key art highlighting the mixed reality nature of Hot Wheels: Rift Rally.

Velan Studios, the developers behind Knockout City and Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, has announced Hot Wheels: Rift Rally, a mixed-reality racing game that uses actual RC Hot Wheels cars and will launch on March 14.
It very much looks like a spiritual successor to Home Circuit, but uses the popular toy car brand instead of Mario Kart characters and items. However, it's not on Nintendo Switch; Rift Rally will only be available for iOS, PlayStation 4, and PS5. Rift Rally comes with a Chameleon RC car that can transform into over 140 different Hot Wheels vehicles in-game, as well as four Rift Gates that players can use to set up the boundaries of a racetrack.

From there, players can participate in various races and challenges, with the RC car moving around in the real world as flashier-looking gameplay takes place on the player's screen. Rift Rally looks like it improves upon the formula Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit established, though. There is more challenge variation -- we saw gameplay footage of one challenge where players had to clear as many flower petals from a track as possible, and Stunt Mode allows players to just drive and perform tricks around their home without the need for the Rift Gates.
Hot Wheels isn't a stranger to the video game industry. There have been lots of licensed Hot Wheels games over the years, with the recent Hot Wheels Unleashed and themed expansion for Forza Horizon 5 being particular standouts. But no Hot Wheels game before now has looked and functioned quite like Rift Rally.
Hot Wheels: Rift Rally will launch for iOS, PS4, and PS5 on March 14. The game will cost $130, although a Collector's Edition that comes with a black and gold Chameleon RC car and a regular McLaren Senna Hot Wheels car will also be available for $150.

Gaming

Tomb Raider returns as a mobile roguelike via Netflix

tomb raider reloaded release date

Tomb Raider Reloaded, a roguelike mobile game based on Crystal Dynamics' long-running series, has been unveiled ahead of its release on iOS, Android, and Netflix on February 14.
Tomb Raider Reloaded is Coming Soon - Register Now!
Tomb Raider Reloaded is a top-down action game where players control Lara Croft. She'll go from room to room, defeating enemies and solving puzzles in each one. In typical roguelike fashion, Croft will get more powerful over time as players level up, obtain XP modifiers, find stat-boosting Runes and Perks, and craft weapons and outfits. Lara will be voiced by Keeley Hawes, who portrayed her in games like Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, rather than Camilla Luddington, who played Lara Croft in Crystal Dynamics' rebooted trilogy.
This announcement comes on the heels of Amazon making a large investment in the Tomb Raider franchise. Amazon Game Studios will publish the Unreal Engine 5-powered Tomb Raider game in development at Crystal Dynamics and is developing TV shows and movies connected to the game. Amazon is not involved with the release of this mobile game, though, as developer Emerald City Games and Embracer Group-owned publisher CDE Entertainment are handling it. Regardless, 2023 has been the busiest year for Lara Croft in a while.
The game will be available normally on iOS and Android, but Netflix subscribers can also download a version of the game that doesn't have any in-game ads or microtransactions. The release of Tomb Raider Reloaded will come right on the heels of the launch of Valiant Hearts: Coming Home, another Netflix mobile game based on a notable console game.