Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Sabrina or Ozark? Netflix has secret games in store for E3

Gabe Gurwin
By
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Netflix continues to invest in interactive entertainment, both through choose-your-own-adventure episodes of shows likeBlack Mirror and full-fledged video games like Stranger Things. The company will make an appearance at E3 2019, and it still has some unannounced adaptations that it will be showing off. The question is, of course, just what will they be?

Speaking to the official E3 account on Twitter, Netflix’s science-fiction account NXOnNetflix revealed that it will be hosting its own panel at E3 in June. The panel will be called “Bringing Your Favorite Shows to Life: Developing Netflix Originals into Video Games.”

Recommended Videos

How does this sound:
"Bringing Your Favorite Shows to Life: Developing Netflix Originals into Video Games"?

— NX (@NXOnNetflix) May 13, 2019

Stranger Things was confirmed to make an appearance during the panel, with the account adding that there is “more to come.”

Presumably, this means that a video game adaptation of at least one more of Netflix’s original series will be announced at E3. Stranger Things was turned into an isometric action game similar to those popular in arcades during the time when the show is set, but this likely wouldn’t work for other Netflix series.

An action series based on Ozark or a point-and-click adventure inspired by Chilling Adventures of Sabrina seem like good choices. We are very unlikely, however, to see anything based on the Netflix Marvel series, which were canceled in advance of Disney launching its Disney Plus streaming service.

Netflix already has some other experience with television and video games, but not in the way you might expect. The Telltale series Minecraft: Story Mode was brought to the streaming service. Taking the adventure gameplay of the original release and turning it into an interactive television show, it offered a different way to experience the humor and story for those unfamiliar or uninterested in traditional video games.

Among Netflix’s latest interactive programs is You vs. Wild, starring Bear Grylls. In the series, you make choices to help the legendary outdoor expert survive in the wilderness, and each episode takes place in a vastly different environment. Naturally, it’s the most fun to figure out how to make Grylls do something silly.

The latest Stranger Things game sequel, Stranger Things 3: The Game, is scheduled to release on July 4 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile devices.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Summer Game Fest returns just before E3 2023 next June
The official artwork confirming Summer Game Fest's return on June 8, 2023.

Geoff Keighley has confirmed when Summer Game Fest will return in June 2023. It will begin with a live kickoff show on June 8, 2023, placing Keighley's game announcement alternative less than a week before E3's grand (intended) 2023 return.
Unlike past years, Summer Game Fest Live Kickoff 2023 will feature a live audience, like Geoff Keighley's The Game Awards. It will take place in the YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park, with tickets going on sale in early 2023. It will still be livestreamed across platforms like YouTube and Twitch, though. It's currently unknown who's participating, how long Summer Game Fest will run afterward, or if it will feature a Summer Game Fest Play Days-like element for fans. Still, Keighley says all of that info will be revealed ahead of the event next year, teasing what people can expect. 
"In keeping with tradition, we'll have tons of exciting announcements from the developers that are pushing the games industry forward, and will once again highlight other publisher digital events, demos, and more surprises to be announced in the coming months," Keighley says in a press release. 
That June 8 start date, and the other Summer Game Fest events likely to follow, put Keighley's show just ahead of E3 2023. The ESA and ReedPop plan to bring E3 back between June 13 and June 16, 2023. With five days of lead time on E3, Summer Game Fest can coexist with the long-running gaming conference and encompass the plethora of publisher showcases that tend to precede E3.
Geoff Keighley made it clear that he wants Summer Game Fest and E3 to coexist for a while. "We've had extensive conversations with ReedPop about E3," he said in an interview with Epic Games Store. "I think it'll kind of fit together and flow kind of from what we're doing into what they're doing and stuff. E3, to me, is this kind of master brand that represents gaming news in June."
With the start date of Summer Game Fest confirmed, the coexistence of these two summer gaming events is a reality. Summer Game Fest returns on June 8, 2023.

Read more
E3 2023 returns in June with separate business and consumer days
The logo for E3 2023.

E3 2023 will return as an in-person event from June 13 to June 16, 2023, as announced by ReedPop today.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) already revealed that E3 will return in 2023, but now we know exactly when the event will take place, along with several other key details. E3 will once again take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center after a four-year hiatus, but will incorporate separate days for industry professionals and general consumers.

Read more
With Stranger Things and Squid Game, Netflix proves it’s better at making great TV shows than movies
Eleven, Will, Mike, and Jonathan standing and staring in a still from Stranger Things Season 4.

Netflix received a whopping 105 nominations at this year's Emmys, driven by hits like Squid Game, Stranger Things, and Ozark. While it's a decline from last year's 129, Netflix still secured the second-most nominations out of any network or streamer, with only HBO beating it thanks to juggernauts like Succession and The White Lotus.

Still, not everything is great for the so-called King of the Streamers. Whether it's canceling shows left and right or losing subscribers every quarter, the original streamer can't seem to catch a break, and not even its lush and over-the-top original movies can help. Netflix premiered the tiresome The Gray Man less than a month ago, and the film -- which reportedly sports a $200 million production tag -- has already left the pop culture vocabulary; not even the news that a sequel and a prequel are coming was enough to stimulate interest.

Read more